Proposals made by the Swedish commission. The commission first acknowledged that the trade unions had gone too far in the Laval case, as their action was motivated not by Laval’s refusal to adhere to a collective agreement, but its refusal to apply more than the required minimum. It then reaffirmed that the “lex britannica” should remain a significant element of Swedish labour law, whilst adding restrictions to avoid its abuse such as occurred in the Laval case. Finally, the commission proposed to assign a greater role to the Arbetsmiljöverket (National Agency for Working Conditions), notably as a liaison office: all collective agreements should be sent to it for information and all disputes concerning this type of problem should be submitted to it beforehand, in order to check the true nature of the dispute. This administrative authority would also have the task of answering all the questions from foreign businesses, as well as from employees, concerning the minimum wage levels applicable in the corresponding sector in Sweden.
The commission, established by the Swedish government following the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) decision on the so-called “Laval” case, submitted its proposals to the government on 12th December 2008. The decision handed down by the ECJ questionned the fundamental principles of the Swedish labour market’s model, and employers and trade unions requested measures which would enable them to be preserved whilst ensuring their compatibility with EU regulations. (Ref. 090097)
The Laval case (als
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