"It is time to reduce the weekly working hours for workers in Sweden," says LO chairman Johan Lindholm at a press conference.
"It is difficult for an ordinary worker today to make ends meet. In Sweden, we have worked according to the 40-hour week for 50 years. Since then, the labor market and society have developed at lightning speed, but the 40-hour week has remained unchanged," he adds.
LO therefore intends to request central negotiations with employers within the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise on shorter working hours. The exact requirements will be specified when negotiations begin.
Refuses to negotiate
But the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise flatly refuses to negotiate centrally, for the entire LO collective, about working hours.
"No," says Mattias Dahl, vice president, to TT.
"The timing is also very strange when recent years have been characterized by crises. For us, it would then be very strange to sit down and negotiate about shorter working hours," says Dahl.
Tone deaf
And at the Swedish Industrial Employers' Association, negotiating manager Per Widolf is equally dismissive. According to him, reduced working hours would mean lower wages, fewer jobs and reduced competitiveness for Swedish industry, and less money for welfare.
"We do not intend to reduce weekly working hours," he says, calling LO's demands "tone deaf."
The employers emphasize that issues of working hours are included when unions and employers negotiate terms in collective agreements at the industry level. Central negotiations, for the entire labor market, are not the right forum.
LO does not agree with this.
"This issue is far too big and important to be addressed at the industry level. Here, we in the main organizations need to step in and take the responsibility required to find common solutions," says Johan Lindholm.
He assumes that the government and parliament support what he hopes the parties will come up with - and if necessary through legislation.
35 hours?
LO's contract secretary Veli-Pekka Säikkälä says at the press conference that LO's own working hours investigation used 35 hours as a starting point. And the monthly salary should be maintained even if working hours are reduced. Part-time employees should be able to get more hours.
Johan Lindholm notes that Denmark and Norway have had around 37 hours for decades.
"We will be told that it is impossible. It is not," says Lindholm.
