Systems
The Swedish Government and working life issues
Good working life with smooth-running working conditions is a basic working objective of the Swedish Government. Above all, this means employing a holistic perspective and ensuring co-operation between the different fields of activity in working life policy. One of the Government’s most important tasks for the future will be to achieve a sustainable working life attuned to the aim of high and steady growth. Globalisation and rapid technical and economic development are creating new conditions for enterprise and the labour market. To this is added demographic development, with an ageing population and rising ill-health, which among other things implies a clear risk of progressively fewer people having to support progressively more. The challenge lies in uniting the rights, security and competence development of the individual with the renewal and developmental force which sustainable economic growth demands.
Government efforts to improve health in the workplace
In 2002 the Government defined a national target for improving health in the workplace:
“Absence from working life due to illness shall, compared with 2002, be halved by 2008. First-time activity and sickness benefit payments are to be reduced at the same time. Allowance is to be made for demographic developments during the period.”
Vigorous action is needed to counteract the rapid growth of sickness absence and other indications of ill-health at work. These questions have a critical bearing on growth and employment. Since 2001 the Swedish Government has been working with a strategy for improved health in the workplace. The idea is to gather existing initiatives and new ones into a plan of action, and a wide spectrum of proposals for action has therefore been devised in the following areas: preventive work environment management, return to work in connection with ill-health, and research, the purpose of these measures being to focus attention on the individual and to clarify the employer’s responsibility for health in the workplace.
Who does what in the work environment?
The Swedish Work Environment Authority, AV, is a supervisory authority whose aim is to reduce the risks of ill-health and accidents at work and to help improve the work environment, so as to achieve good and developmental workplaces for all. AV draws up rules/Provisions for the work environment and is responsible for official work environment and work injury statistics (ISA statistics) in Sweden. Affiliated to the Authority are ten Work Environment Inspectorates, tasked with verifying compliance with work environment and working hours legislation at workplaces throughout the country.
The Authority publishes a journal, Arbetarskydd. Legislation, Provisions and literate can be accessed at its website, which can also be used for asking and obtaining answers to questions about rules on the work environment. The Work Environment Authority is also Sweden’s “focal point” - http://se.osha.europa.eu /svindex.stm – for contacts with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Bilbao, Spain. This website provides links to the work environment information available from government departments, national authorities, the social partners and NGOs in various countries.
www.av.se • tel. +46-(0)8-730 90 00
e-mail arbetsmiljoverket@av.se
The Swedish Agency for Government Employers is the employers’ association of national authorities and State-owned utilities. As such it is responsible for central negotiations with the unions and for the development and co-ordination of governmental employer policy.
www.arbetsgivarverket.se • tel. +46-(0)8-700 13 00
e-mail agv@arbetsgivarverket.se
The National Institute for Working Life is a national knowledge centre for working life issues. The Institute carries out research, development and training on the Government’s behalf. Affiliated to the Institute is the Working Life Library, which is at the service of both researchers and the general public. The Institute provides training programmes for OSH personnel, among others, but also offers brief courses and one-day seminars.
www.arbetslivsinstitutet.se
tel. (head office) +46-(0)8-619 67 00
e-mail registrator@arbetslivsinstitutet.se
Prevent
Prevent is an unincorporated association within the work environment field, owned by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the Council for Negotiation and Co-operation. Our mission is to, in co-operation with our owners, provide knowledge concerning work environment-related issues and develop methods to support each and every workplace in its ongoing work relating to the work environment.
This is done by publishing training and work material, and factbooks, arranging training courses and conferences and publishing the magazine “Arbetsliv” (“Working life”).
Prevent works to promote a healthy, safe and sound working life. For more information, visit our homepage at www.prevent.se.
tel. +46-(0)8-402 02 00
e-mail info@prevent.se
The Government Sector Development Council works for the development of national government workplaces by means of new working methods, new forms of partnership and new knowledge. The Council arranges conferences, seminars and training programmes, and publishes the journal utveckla.nu, books, reports and information and guidance material, its aim in all things being to support local development work. The Council also provides financial support for projects initiated and run at the local workplace and agreed on by employers and unions. The Council’s principals are the Swedish Agency for Government Employers, OFR (The Public Employees' Negotiation Council), SACO-S and SEKO (the Union for Service and Communication Employees).
www.utvecklingsradet.se • www.utveckla.nu
tel. +46-(0)8-402 28 30
e-mail info@utvecklingsradet.se
The Swedish Work Environment Association is a non-profit NGO for the promotion of good health and developmental working conditions in both enterprise and the public service. The Association publishes the journal Du och jobbet, answers questions relating to the work environment, arranges seminars, offers network and inter-business meetings, recommends training providers, sells EU-harmonised signage and current literature, and rents out pleasant conference facilities. Membership discounts are offered.
www.arbetsmiljoforum.com
www.skyddsombud.com
www.duochjobbet.com
tel. +46-(0)8-442 46 00
e-mail receptionen@arbetsmiljoforum.com
TCO, the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees, represents salaried workers, e.g. engineers, teachers, police officers, secretarial staff, banking staff and nurse, belonging to various national federations. TCO pursues work for all, with job satisfaction and opportunities of development, with a good work environment, e.g. with computers meeting the requirements of good ergonomics and with income security in the event of illness or childbirth.
www.tco.se • tel. +46-(0)8-782 91 00
e-mail: tco@tco.se
VINNOVA (the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems) has the task of promoting sustainable growth for enterprise, society and working life by developing efficient innovation systems and funding needs-driven research and development. Innovation systems are the network of actors creating, spreading and using new knowledge and new techniques. VINNOVA’s activities target several different innovation systems:
- National innovation systems.
- Sectoral innovation systems.
- Innovation systems at regional level.
Each of these systems has a variety of actors, representing business enterprise, research and political affairs, who, acting together and in dialogue, can create added value from new knowledge.
www.vinnova.se • tel. +46-(0)8-473 30 00
e-mail vinnova@vinnova.se
Branschföreningen för personlig skyddsutrustning, BPS, is an association of manufacturers and suppliers of personal protective equipment. BPS represents members in relation to authorities and users in matters of concern to the industry and works to promote good quality and service by encouraging interest in approved products for the prevention of accidents and injuries at work, participates actively in standards work and is officially consulted in matters of national policy.
www.pbs.nu • tel. +46-(0)8-508 938 00
e-mail bps@branschkansliet.se
Afa is a joint organisation of three insurance companies which administers collective insurance for redundancy, illness, parental leave, work injuries and fatalities. Acting on behalf of employers’ and employees’ associations, business undertakings and others, Afa conducts injury prevention projects. An important part of Afa’s work is concerned with supporting research and projects for the improvement of public health and the work environment.
www.afa.se • tel. +46-(0)8-696 40 00
The Department of Occupational and Environmental Health works for the promotion of good health and good working life in the County of Stockholm by scientifically charting work-related health problems, clarifying the causes of such problems, operating prevention and health promotion projects, examining patients and transmitting knowledge concerning work-related health problems. Arbets- och mijömedicin is a part of the Stockholm Centre of Public Health and the Stockholm County Council, but also exists in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Linköping, Lund, Malmö, Sundsvall, Umeå, Uppsala and Örebro. For addresses, see home page links.
www.sll.se/amm • tel. +46-(0)8-517 730 56
e-mail amm@smd.sll.se
Swedish council for working life and social research, FAS
The Council supports basic and applied research with a view to promoting the accumulation of knowledge in matters relating to working life and the understanding of social conditions and processes.
• tel. +46-(0)8-775 40 70
http://www.fas.se/english
e-mail fas@fas.se
Föreningen Svensk Företagshälsovård (FSF) is an independent, non-governmental association of occupational health care providers in Sweden. FSF works for the development of occupational health care through training, advisory activities, quality assurance and information through its home page and its journals FSF-nytt and FSF-aktuellt. Priority is given to lobbying.
www.svensk.fhv.se • tel. +46-(0)8-762 67 46
e-mail fsf.service@svensk.fhv.se
Kommunernas och landstingens arbetsmiljöråd, AMR, is a bipartite body in the local government sector tasked with supporting the integration of work environment, co-determination and operational activities, the aim being, through co-operation between the parties at central level, to support a preventive, process-oriented work environment management process at local level.
tel. +46-(0)8-452 76 24
e-mail hans.granqvist@svekom.se
LO, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, works for the improvement of working life. LO negotiates with employers on conditions of pay and the work environment and also works to achieve a better future and better working life for its members, who for example include house painters, motor mechanics, restaurant employees, retail staff, nursing staff and factory workers.
www.lo.se • tel. +46-(0)8- +46-(0)8-796 25 00
e-mail mailbox@lo.se
The Government Offices, Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications
The Ministry has a section for labour law and the work environment which is responsible for the field of working life, i.e. labour law, mediation in labour disputes, certain anti-discriminatory legislation, job modification and certain rehabilitation, working hours, leave of absence issues and the national wage guarantee for employees’ protection in the event of bankruptcies.
http://naring.regeringen.se
tel. +46-(0)8-405 10 00
e-mail registrator@industry.ministry.se
SACO, the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations, is made up of independent national unions, e.g. of economists, lawyers, architects, doctors, teachers, scientists and librarians. SACO pursues the achievement of good conditions of pay, service, professional opportunity, social security and, not least, a substantial improvement of educational programmes all the way from compulsory school to research.
www.saco.se • tel. +46-(0)8-613 48 00
e-mail kansli@saco.se
The Swedish ESF Council is a newly constituted authority tasked with implementing European Social Fund programmes in Sweden, new Objective 3 activities and the Equal programme for 2000-2006, and also with concluding Objective 3, Växtkraft Objective 4, Adapt and Employment for 1995-1999. The Council’s mission is to strengthen the position of the individual in working life and thereby to contribute towards growth and increased employment.
www.esf.se • www.vaxtkraft.nu
tel. +46-(0)8-57 91 71 00
The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise represents member companies, both large and small, belonging to industrial and employers’ associations. Its aim is for Sweden to recover a leading position in the international prosperity league. Its mission also includes promoting greater understanding of the realities confronting business enterprise and campaigning for all business undertakings in Sweden to have the best possible opportunities for action and growth.
www.svensktnaringsliv.se
tel. +46-(0)8-553 430 00
e-mail webbredaktionen@svensktnaringsliv.se
