Search results

This study draws primarily on in-depth interviews with nine male Polish construction workers posted to Sweden in the early 2010s. The emphasis lies on their own experiences of being exposed to what they saw as unjust working conditions, and why they accept them or react against them. The overarching research questions are why Polish workers go to Sweden, and, more importantly, why they stay even when they feel unfairly treated or directly cheated by their employers. The main points of interest are wages, work environment, employment contracts and relations with different labour market players, including the EU. It was very clear that none of the Polish workers had ever heard of the EU Posted Workers Directive. Still, the lack of serious resistance, our study argues, was not because of poor knowledge about their legal rights, but was linked to a wish to fulfil a 'life project' back home in Poland, such as building a house, starting a company, being able to afford to start a family and raise children, or saving for retirement. This wish helped the workers to swallow 'unfair' treatment.

This article discusses wage setting in SMEs in eight European countries, how wage setting in small firms differs from that in larger firms and how trade unions address the issue. The context is the increased decentralisation of wage setting. Wage setting is analysed at four different levels: the workplace, the regional, the industry and the national level. The main finding is that trade unions' ability to secure higher wages for workers in SMEs depends not upon workplace organisation, but upon well functioning industrial relations institutions. That is, if workers in SMEs earn less than employees in larger companies, this is due not to the size of the company but to the absence of a comprehensive collective bargaining system that encompasses SMEs.

"In dem Artikel geht es um die Lohnfestsetzung in KMU in acht europäischen Ländern. Inwiefern unterscheidet sich die Lohnfestsetzung in kleinen Firmen von der in größeren, und wie gehen Gewerkschaften damit um? Den Hintergrund bildet die zunehmende Dezentralisierung der Lohnfestsetzung. Die Lohnfestsetzung wird auf vier verschiedenen Ebenen untersucht: Betrieb, Region, Industrie und Land. Das wichtigste Ergebnis der Untersuchung lautet, dass der Erfolg der Gewerkschaften, höhere Lohnabschlüsse für Beschäftigte in KMU zu erzielen, nicht von der betrieblichen Organisation abhängt, sondern von gut funktionierenden Institutionen der Arbeitsbeziehungen. Mit anderen Worten, wenn Beschäftigte in KMU weniger verdienen als Beschäftigte in größeren Unternehmen, so ist dies nicht der Größe des Unternehmens geschuldet, sondern dem Fehlen eines umfassenden Systems der Tarifverhandlungen, das KMU einschließt." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

PurposeThis paper aims to provide an overview of changes in the context of the Swedish public sector.Design/methodology/approachIt reviews the main literature on the topic and relevant policy texts.FindingsIn short, even though the last decade and a half has been a most turbulent period in the history of the Swedish public sector, with its peak in two great strikes, the framework has remained substantially intact. Swedish path dependency has been so strong that the system has largely survived; it has moved towards "organized decentralization", but it has not dissolved. It is probable that the end of that move has not yet been seen; the Swedish system is still transforming.Research limitations/implicationsIt is a general overview of key developments.Practical implicationsIt is relevant for a discussion of the general trends and dynamic of public sector industrial relations in Sweden.Originality/valueThis article manages to take an overview and point to the uncertain development of a new market approach.

Fears of a 'race to the bottom' in labour standards may have been overstated. Nevertheless, using Sweden as a case study, it is argued that the diminished capacity of trade unions to defend labour standards following the Laval judgement of the European Court of Justice, together with a decline in trade union density, a limited remit of enforcement authorities and recent changes to the Swedish labour migration regime, may have detrimental impacts on labour standards, particularly in low-skill low-wage occupations. In combination, these developments are creating new spaces for migrant precariousness within the context of a formerly well-regulated Swedish labour market model.