Sweden: an agreement in principle on flexible retirement in the service sector

Both the Unionen (private sector union) and Sveriges Ingenjörer (Swedish engineers) unions welcomed securing an agreement in principle on 11 November with the employers’ organization, Almega, and it being one that treats the thorny issue of flexible retirement and questions over developing short term and medium term agreements. The main goal is to avoid disputes along the lines of what was brought before the tribunals in the spring of 2016.
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A long running sensitive issue. For a longtime the question of flexible retirement has been a cause for disagreement between Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer, and Almega. The trade unions want provisions allowing employees to choose from between reducing working hours, early retirement age, or regular retirement age, to apply to Almega member companies, impacting some 100,000 workers. It is useful to note that since 2013 these rules have been included in the industry agreement. However Almega refus

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