10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10774
The Swedish response to Covid-19 has been to implement policies on social distancing and a decrease in public activity, while refraining from a lockdown and the closing businesses and public services. To counteract the disastrous economic effects for workers, changes have been implemented to the unemployment and sickness benefit schemes. A re-enforced system for part time furlough has been put in place. Parents receive parental leave benefits for staying home with sick children according to the ordinary system.
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Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Precarious workers
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Sweden
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National Reports
2020-04-15
2020-04-14
2020-04-15
2020-09-15
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Niklas Selberg
2020/04/15
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10774
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Precarious workers
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Sweden
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Sweden                                                   Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Caroline Johansson                                                               Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
caroline.johansson@jur.uu.se                                       Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                               ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10774




                  COVID-19 and Labour Law: Sweden
                        Caroline Johansson*


                                                Abstract
     The Swedish approach has been to put social distancing and less public activity in place
     without closing businesses and public services. To counteract the economic effects for
     workers, adjustments have been made in the unemployment benefit, sickness benefit and an
     enforced system for part time furlough has been put in place. Parents receive parental leave
     benefits for staying home with sick children according to the ordinary system.

     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour Law; Furlough; Unemployment benefits; Precarious workers.




     In order to combat the spreading of the Covid-19 virus, Sweden has mainly used
 measures based on recommendations and not prohibitions connected to legal sanctions.
 The country is not on lockdown. Public meetings and events with more than 50 people are,
 however, forbidden and sanctioned with fines or imprisonment depending on the severity1.
 Public meetings and events include amongst other activities demonstrations, lectures,
 religious meetings, theatre, cinema and other cultural events, sport events, markets and
 fairs2. Restaurants, bars, stores and supermarkets have received specific guidelines in order
 to reduce potential crowding but remain open3.

    The Public Health Agency has issued several recommendations to the public and, as
 mentioned above, guidelines for specific sectors4. Workers that have any kind of symptoms
 shall stay at home. If possible, work shall be organised so it can be done from home.
 Unnecessary travels shall be avoided, and all workplaces shall be adapted in order to ensure
 social distance and good hygiene. Social distancing shall in general be practiced and enabled
 by employers, business owners and public institutions.

 *
   Assistant professor in private law at the Law Faculty, Uppsala University.
 1 SFS 2020:162. The decision was made through a change in the Government regulation connected to the
 Public Order Act (ordningslag (1993:1617)), meaning that only a decision by the Government was needed and
 not one by the Swedish Parliament.
 2 The definition is found in the Public Order Act chapter 2 section 1–3.
 3
   HSLF-FS 2020:9 General regulations and recommendations regarding restaurants, cafés etc.
 4 HSLF-FS 2020:9 and HSLF-FS 2020:12 General regulations and recommendations regarding the

 responsibility to prevent infection. There are more recommendations, some regarding specific issues and
 some that have been updated in the two above.
    Caroline Johansson                                                          Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                               Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                  Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                    Section: National Reports




    The approach in Sweden is that to a large extent continue having an open society but
with less activity. Both the prohibition and the guidelines have meant that many actors
have reduced and some ceased their activities, especially within the hotel, restaurant and
travel sectors. The same goes for industries that are dependent on global supply chains,
which are most manufacturing industries. This of course have had an impact on
employment in Sweden. The number of notices of dismissal (varsel) has increased and is
above the numbers presented during the Swedish financial crisis in the 1990s and during
the financial crisis in 20085. A notice does not need to be converted into an actual
dismissal, but the number of unemployed registered at the Swedish Public Employment
Office is high and it is fair to say that the risk for increased unemployment is imminent.
Together with the National Institute of Economic Research’s (Konjunkturinstitutet) analysis
that Sweden is facing a deep recession there are clear indications that more dismissals will
follow6.

    Workers with fixed-term contracts, casual workers or other precarious contracts are
already affected to a large extent. In 2017, approximately 760 000 persons worked on fixed-
term contracts and about 210 000 of them did not have fixed working hours and was called
when needed7. The largest group of workers without fixed working hours are found in the
health and care sector, where there is an increased need. However, second, third and fourth
you find financial services, retail, hotels and restaurants. Workers in these sectors were the
first to notice a drop in demand and many have lost their income.

   The Swedish government have issued several labour market measures directed both
towards workers and businesses. In order to secure jobs and reduce the amount of
dismissals, the Parliament has decided to enforce the Short Time Work Allowance Act (lag
(2013:948) om stöd vid korttidsarbete) which makes it possible for employers part time
furlough instead of dismissing workers8. The state will cover the majority of the costs and
the rest is divided between the employer and the employee. The employer will take a larger
responsibility than the employee. The maximum reduction is 60 percent of the working
time, meaning that the worker will be at the employer’s disposal 40 percent. The worker
will receive 92,5 percent of the his or her ordinary salary and the employer will get reduced
employment costs with 52,5 percent9. The rules are a bit complicated and work differently
depending on if the employer is bound by collective agreement or not.




5 The Swedish Public Employment Service, press conference the 6th of April 2020.
6 Analysis of the state of the market, April 2020
7 Swedish Government Official Report 2019:5, p 231.
8 Government Bill 2019/20:132 and 2019/20:FiU51.
9 The 14th of April, the Government proposed an enforcement of the newly adopted rules. According to the

latest proposal the maximum reduction of working time would be 80 percent, the worker would receive 88
percent of his or her ordinary salary and the employer would get reduced employment costs with 72 percent.
It is very likely that the new proposal will be adopted.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10774                                                                 2
     Caroline Johansson                                                            Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                  Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                     Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                       Section: National Reports




   In case of unemployment the Government has proposed lighter requirements for
unemployment benefits10. The changes are made within the ordinary system which is
organised to give strong incentives to find a new job. It also requires a fairly strong
connection to the labour market in order to receive benefits. The changes are connected to
these requirements and are presented below.
   Normally, the unemployed needs to show that he or she is actively searching for a job
by sending in an activity report. This requirement is temporarily removed.
   The connection to the labour market is upheld through the ‘work requirement’ and is
based on the amount of hours worked before unemployment. The Government has
lowered the amount of hours that a unemployed need to have worked before the
unemployment from 80 hours a month during six months to 60 hours a month during the
same time period11.
   The Swedish unemployment benefit is organised according to the Ghent system,
meaning that in order to receive income-based benefits you need to be member of an
unemployment benefit fund. Normally, twelve months membership is required but during
the time period March to December 2020 each month shall count as four months, so that
the qualification period is reduced to three months.
   The amounts in both the basic benefit and the income-based benefit have been raised.
The basic benefit is a fixed amount that everyone that fulfils the ‘work requirement’ can
receive. It has been raised from 365 to 510 SEK a day. The income-based benefit is
calculated on the income but only up to a certain ceiling. Income above that ceiling is not
taken into account. The ceiling has been raised from 910 to 1200 SEK a day.
   Finally, the initial qualifying period have been temporarily removed which means that
the unemployment benefits will be calculated and received from day one instead of day
seven. There is also a proposal for making it easier for entrepreneurs to receive
unemployment benefits while their companies are dormant12.

   The measures directed to workers are combined with other, often more costly measures,
to ensure companies’ survival such as lowered social fees, subsidised rents, respite for tax
payments and facilitated loans.

   As mentioned above, everyone that has the possibility to work from home are
encouraged to do so. Meetings shall be held digitally when possible and workplaces adapted
to reduce the risk of infection13. Since not everyone has the possibility to work from home
public transport shall be kept according to ordinary schedule. Examples of adapting
workplaces are: Ensure that it is possible to wash hands frequently, only allow people to
enter buses through the back doors and not sit in the front to ensure the bus drivers’ safety


10 Government Bill 2019/20:146.
11 There is an alternative calculation that has been lowered from 480 hours in total during six consecutive
months to 420 hours.
12 Today’s regulation demands that the company is phased out for the entrepreneur to receive benefits.
13
   HSLF-FS 2020:12 General regulations and recommendations regarding the responsibility to prevent
infection.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10774                                                                    3
     Caroline Johansson                                                           Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                 Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                    Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                      Section: National Reports




and in general reduce the amount of people in vehicles, super markets or other business
where workers need to be on site in order to perform work.

   If a worker gets sick, even with minimum symptoms, he or she shall stay at home. Sick
workers can receive sickness benefits and some changes have been made in the ordinary
system14. The qualifying period of one day has been subsidised with a flat sum of 700 SEK
independent of income, meaning that the state compensates for that day, completely or
partly depending on income. Normally, the worker needs to present a doctor’s certificate
after a week of sickness. That requirement is temporarily removed.

    In Sweden, only higher education from high schools to universities is held digitally. Day
care and the nine-year compulsory schools are open. However, children that show even the
slightest symptom of sickness shall stay at home. The parent that stays at home with a sick
child receives parental leave pay according to the normal rules15. Supplementary rules are
proposed in case of a school closes and the child is not sick. As with sickness benefits, it is
proposed that doctor’s certificate will be needed during this period16. Since health care and
medicine are free for children and the price is heavily reduced for adults there is no extra
economic support to buy alternative care services.

   Some of the measures mentioned above benefit workers with precarious contracts as
well, but since the Swedish social security system to a large extent is organised around and
calculated on income, it generally disfavours workers with short contracts or irregular
income. This means that these workers were vulnerable on the labour market before covid-
19 and, in case of unemployment or sickness, risked receiving little or no benefits. Apart
from the changes regarding unemployment benefits, no measures that are directed towards
strengthen these workers’ situation have been taken.

   The social partners have put forward proposals where some correspond to the
Government’s initiative. The mandatory negotiation procedure and system of safety
ombudsmen that is part of the Swedish model is in place during the covid-19 crisis as
usual. To my knowledge there are at this moment no new supplementary regulations in
collective agreements put forward, but the partners rather focus on information to their
members and influencing the Government’s work.

   The Swedish Government’s approach has been to, within its capacity, take the measures
that the Public Health Agency has recommended. The approach means that adjustments
have been made currently. With the approval of changes in the Infectious Disease Control
Act (smittskyddslagen (2004:168)), the Government is given more power to take action in

14 Regulation (2020:195) regarding sickness benefits on account of Covid-19. Moreover, Covid-19 has been
included among infectious diseases that can count as work injuries.
15 A parent has the right to stay at home and receive parental leave pay according to the Parental Leave Act

section 8 and the Social Security Code chapter 13 section 16.
16 S2020/03216/SF, the Ministry of Health and Social affair’s proposal for temporary parental leave benefits.



https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10774                                                                    4
     Caroline Johansson                                                          Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                   Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                     Section: National Reports




order to combat Covid-19 and we might for that reason see more changes in the near
future, depending on how the situation develops17. However, I would say that, at the time
of writing, the situation for workers with precarious contracts has not been sufficiently
addressed. Measures to ensure some sort of basic income and/or subsidised rent have been
proposed by some but not led to concrete measures.




Copyright © 2020 Caroline Johansson. This article is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License




17As of the 7th of April, the Government has reached an agreement with the Parliament to enable faster
decision making regarding more issues connected to Covid-19.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10774                                                                  5
