Few labour disputes in Sweden in 2015

The Swedish National Mediation Office (Medlingsinstitutet) publishes an annual report describing how wage formation, equality, collective bargaining, labour disputes and labour legislation have developed in Sweden.

The Swedish National Mediation Office's scope of operation is considerably wider than that of the Finnish National Conciliator's Office, because, in addition to mediation of labour disputes, its duties include promotion of an efficient wage formation process and overseeing the provision of public statistics on wages and salaries.

The Swedish National Mediation Office describes 2015 as a gap year in labour market negotiations. During the year, only 27 collective agreements terminated, so the risk of labour disputes was minor. If terminable and other similar agreements were taken into account, another 247 collective agreements could have caused labour disputes. The National Mediation Office is of the opinion that the peaceful year indicates that the Swedish wage formation process functions well.

In Sweden, 234 working days were lost due to industrial action in 2015. The figure is the lowest in the 21st century. Mediators were appointed to two labour disputes with a pending threat of industrial action.

The whole annual report is available in Swedish at http://www.mi.se/publicerat/senaste_rapporten/

and an English summary of the report at http://www.mi.se/files/PDF-er/ar_foreign/ar_2015_int/eng_smftn_2015.pdf