Redundancy and the Swedish model : Swedish collective agreements on employment security in a national and international context

Sammanfattning: The dominant position of the employment perspective in Swedish labour law has resulted in a focus on the creation of protection against arbitrary dismissals and the reward for long and faithful service. In contrast to other industrialised countries, there is no financial protection in situations of redundancy (e.g. a statutory right to receive redundancy payment) and, in the main, employment transition has been left to the workings of the labour market policy. These topics instead are the subject of voluntary regulation by the social partners. Beginning in the early 1970s, a unique system of collective agreements on employment security has evolved, which, from a research point of view, represents a previously scantly investigated example of the negotiated solutions for which the Swedish model of labour relations is well-known.This study charts this system of collective agreements by examining its normative structures and relating these to the legal framework of redundancy in Sweden. This includes an in-depth analysis of the most influential accord, the SN-PTK Agreement on Transition (Omställningsavtalet SN-PTK), showing how its very basic stipulations are given content through application. Amongst the conclusions drawn is that in respect of the organisation and nature of redundancy support, these corporatist schemes provide alternatives which can benefit public labour market policy and legislation. In order to allow for an evaluative analysis, the Swedish contractual model is also compared to two foreign models of regulation, namely the Japanese Employment Stabilisation Fund system and the British redundancy payment legislation, which show diametrically different approaches to redundancy management.