On Wednesday, Kommunal presented its contract demands to the employer party SKR (Swedish Municipalities and Regions) ahead of the wage movement, which affects around 350,000 members.
Kommunal is demanding a 4.2 per cent wage increase or at least SEK 1,222 more per month. The union also wants to raise individual guarantees from 47 per cent, meaning that everyone should be guaranteed a minimum wage increase, and an additional increase in the lowest wages.
"Arbitrary and unfair"
Instead of entirely individual wage setting, the union wants competence, experience, and education to have a much greater impact than today.
We do not want individual solutions on wages, they are perceived as arbitrary and unfair, says Malin Ragnegård, Kommunal's chairman, at a press conference.
Thus, Kommunal is abandoning 30 years of individual wage setting.
It has not benefited our members, it has led to an uneven power balance, says Ragnegård.
At the time, the notion was that individual wage setting would benefit the entire collective, but that has not been the case, according to the union.
May take time
Exactly how this will work, for example, whether the local club will gain more influence over wage setting, is still a bit unclear.
We are humble about the fact that this transition may take some time, says chief negotiator Johan Ingelskog, who means that the more collective solutions should not be seen as a return to the old tariff wages.
The union also wants all worked hours above scheduled hours, for part-time employees, to be counted as qualified overtime.
Divided shifts
Furthermore, the LO union wants to regulate divided shifts more strictly, a work shift should not be able to be arbitrarily short.
However, no demands are being made for generally shorter working hours, an issue that is otherwise being driven hard by Kommunal in public opinion. The union wants to await the joint inquiry that LO has set up and which will be completed in May 2025.
SKR does not want to comment on the demands today. The employers will present their demands on Friday.
