Sweden: government proposes to adjust industrial relations system to comply with EU law

Supervising collective action. In a decision rendered in December 2007 (Laval, see our dispatch No. 071034), the ECJ ruled that, in the case of posted workers, Swedish unions’ actions to force the foreign service provider to comply with more favorable social standards than the country’s minimum rules was an obstacle to the free provision of services. This decree questioned the compatibility of Scandinavian systems, especially the Swedish system, with European law, on two levels: 1/ decentralized collective bargaining was seen as an obstacle preventing other countries’ providers to know about all their obligations; 2/ unions’ room for maneuver to enforce locally agreed collective agreements was deemed excessive.
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s to force the foreign service provider to
comply with more favorable social standards than the country’s minimum rules
was an obstacle to the free provision of services. This decree questioned the
compatibility of Scandinavian systems, especially the Swedish system, with European
law, on two levels: 1/ decentralized collective bargaining was seen as an
obstacle preventing other countries’ providers to know about all their obligations;
2/ unions’ room for maneuver to enforce locally agreed coll

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