Archive:Public employment - Sweden

PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION !!!

Data from Month Year. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

<Introduction: simple language, not too long, kind of executive summary>

Regional and administrative organisation

Introduction

The Kingdom of Sweden is a Scandinavian country in the north of Europe. It has more than 9 million inhabitants and is a member of the European Union. It is a Democratic State, with a monarchic, parliamentary system of government and strong municipal self-government.

In addition to the 1976 Constitution, Sweden has a further three fundamental laws: the Royal Succession Act, the Freedom of the Press Act and the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression.

System of government

The head of state – a monarch without formal power

The King or Queen occupying the Swedish throne under the Act of Succession is the country’s head of state. The Swedish head of state, since September 1973 King Carl XVI Gustaf, exercises no political power and does not participate in political life. As head of state, he or she is the representative of the country as a whole, and in that capacity performs only ceremonial duties and functions. The head of state pays official visits to other countries and acts as host to foreign heads of state on official visits to Sweden. The head of state also signs the credentials of Sweden’s ambassadors to other countries and receives foreign ambassadors to Sweden. Another official duty of the head of state is to open the annual session of the Riksdag. The head of state does not participate in the deliberations of the Government and does not need to sign any Government decisions. In 1979, the Act of Succession was amended to give male and female heirs equal rights to the throne. As of 1980 this right belongs to the first-born, regardless of gender.

The Parliament (Riksdag) is the supreme representation of the people. It enacts laws, determines taxes and how state resources should be invested and supervises the Government and public agencies in Sweden. Its members are directly elected every fourth year by national and proportional voting.

The Government is made up of the Prime Minister (Statsminister) and the other members of the Council of Ministers (Statsrad). There is a Government Office (Regeringskansli) responsible for preparing Council matters. The Ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister. The public administration is currently divided into thirteen ministries led by a Minister, although there are also ministers who are not heads of ministries. The Government takes all decisions collectively.

The Judicial System: The Swedish Supreme Court is the third and final authority in all civil and criminal cases. It is independent from the Parliament and the Government. The Supreme Court (Hogsta Domstolen) is the highest general jurisdiction court and the Government Council (Regeringsratten) is the highest administrative court. Nobody may serve as a member of the Supreme Court or the Government Council unless he/ she has been appointed a permanent magistrate.

Regional Organization

It is a unitary state, divided into twenty-one Counties (Län) of which two are Large Regions merged from several smaller Counties. Each County or region has a County Administrative Board or länsstyrelse representing the central government administration in some matters (the first Administrative Board was set up by Swedish Prime Minister, Axel Oxenstierna, in 1634). As political body, each County has a Council or landsting, directly elected by the people. There are also a third political level, the Municipalities or kommuner, and there is 290 Municipalities.

The municipal government is made up of a municipal legislative Assembly, called kommunfullmäktige, whose members (always an odd number) are elected by popular vote every four years. In turn, the Municipalities are divided into a total of 2,512 Parishes or församlingar. There is an ongoing political process going on in order to merge further counties into larger regions.

Public Administration

1. Central Administration State Administration is organized into two levels: a) Government Offices b) Central Government Agencies. a) The Swedish government offices (ministries) employ only a relatively small number of staff, and government agencies enjoy a relatively autonomous status. The government offices work mainly with supporting the Government in its operations, including starting investigations, perform follow up and formulate operational goals for the central government administration.

b) Most experts are working in the Government in Agencies, which may have central, regional and local offices. Agencies are joint entities responsible for most operational activities of the Swedish Public Administration. Each of them is managed by an executive manager and normally has a board of directors appointed by the Government. Agencies belong to a Ministry department but have a high degree of autonomy in terms of decision-making regarding their organization, resources and personnel in order to fulfil the objectives set out in their statutes or regulations. Under the Swedish Constitution, individual ministers are not permitted to intervene directly in the day-to-day operations of government agencies. This type of organization dates back to the XVII century.

2. Regional Administration. Regional Central Government Administration is divided between County Administrative Boards and other state authorieties with regional organisation (such as the Social Insurance Board, The Police, The National Employment Authority and more). The County Administration Board acts as the regional authority for various central authorities. Apart from the state there are two political levels: County Councils, providing regional transport and hospitals etc, and Municipalities, providing all kinds of local services and policies. This sub-division dates back to the XVII century. Nowadays, the County Governor (Landshövding) is responsible for state administration in the county when this function is not conferred on another authority, etc.

Municipal Self-Government: Municipalities (Kommuner) have extensive powers, such as tax regulation and collection, so most citizens only pay taxes to the Municipalities. The decision making assembly, the Municipal Council (Kommunfullmäktige) is elected by citizens. The powers are executed in the Municipal executive board and the different technical offices headed by appointed politicians and staffed with municipal employees. Municipal competencies are regulated in the Local Government Act.

The Swedish Constitution contains provisions defining the relationship between decision-making and executive power. The 1992 Swedish Local Government Act regulates division into municipalities and the organisation and powers of the municipalities and county councils. It also contains rules for elected representatives, municipal councils, executive boards and municipal offices.

Structure of Public Employment

Legal Basis: Generally, the same employment rules are applied to public sector employees as those applied to the private sector. Although state employees carry some special conditions, there is no formal legal status for them. The 1994 Civil Service Act stipulates the basic regulations for public employees (rights and obligations of public employees) and the 1994 Public Employment Act sets out the disciplinary measures.

Structure: As a general rule, employment rules in Sweden are similar for the public and private sector. Therefore, the main regulations are: the 1976 Act, the 1974 Act, and the 1978 Employment Act. Swedish laws do not regulate many areas of public employment, with the exception of public employee responsibilities. Like other sectors of the labour market, Swedish public employment conditions are based on sectoral agreements which complement legislation in other aspects than specified by law. There is one set of agreements for the regional and municipal sector and another set of agreements for the sector of central government administration.

Public Employment Management Body. In Swedish central government administration, the Government has delegated most public employment management responsibilities to the 250 Agencies. Each Agency recruits, manages and dismisses its own staff, except the heads of agencies who are appointed by the Government. There are few formal administrative career systems remaining (except for diplomats, police and the armed forces).

Each agency is headed by an executive officer appointed by the government, usually for a six-year term. Sometimes a director general is chosen from the political sphere. The board of an Agency consists of the head of the agency and a number of the senior officials or representatives of organizations or population groups with a special interest in the agency’s activities, and sometimes politicians. All board members are appointed by the government. Most other officials are hired by the agencies themselves.

A Cabinet minister or a ministry may not intervene in an agency’s handling of individual administrative items of business. As a consequence of their independent status, the central government agencies are expected to submit proposals to the government on the guidelines they should follow. These often concern adjustments in the laws and ordinances that apply to the agencies’ respective fields. Such agency recommendations are often referred for public comment in the same way as commission reports

The Swedish Government has given the role of coordinating the central administration’s employer policies and negotiating with trade unions on a national scale to Swedish Agency for Government Employers (SAGE), which is a membership organisation for Government agencies.

SAGE was established on July 1, 1994. It has 250 member agencies in the central Government sector. Other members include closely associated organisations, mostly foundations.

The supreme governing body of SAGE is the Employers´ Council, which convenes once a year. The Council is made up of the 250 heads (i.g. Directors General, Rectors and County Governors) of the member agencies.

The Employers´ Council determines employer policy and sets membership fees. It also appoints the 15 members to the Board. The SAGE Board, which plays a central part in pay negotiations with the trade unions, is the supreme sovereign body between Council meetings. Unlike the other executive heads who are appointed by the government, the Board appoints the director general of SAGE.

SAGE is structured into nine sectors, each represented by a sector delegation. Delegations act as advisory bodies to the Board and to the Director General.

Staff Categories: There is no formal group of Senior Civil Servants, but there is a group of senior staff appointed by the government. In turn this group can be divided into two main subgroups:

1. The first group consists of executive staff at the agencies i.e. Director-Generals, County Governors, Heads of Agencies directly under the Government, Vice- Chancellors of universities and other university colleges, Deputy Director-Generals, Deputy County Governors and County Directors (approximately 280 people).

2. The second group also comprises State Secretaries and Director-Generals in the ministries offering administrative, legal support to members of the Government. (approximately 80 people).

Statistics: According to the Swedish Agency for Government Employers, in 2009, there were 236,000 people on the government payroll. The gender distribution is exactly 50/50. Senior Civil Servants comprise about 360 people in all. Moreover there is a group of managers that report directly to their Director-Generals and there are Heads of Departments and Divisions at the Agencies. These managers are recruited by their Directors General with permanent contracts, as are most employees in the Central Administration. The number of people in this group can be estimated to be around 2,600, in all there are about 12,600 managers in the central administration whereby almost 38%, or just over 4,800, are women.

Rights, Obligations, Principles And Values

Swedish public sector employees have the right to union membership but do not enjoy guaranteed employment. Redundancies are possible if there is a “just cause” (for example departmental reorganisation). Since 1991 the Job Security Foundation has requalified employees who have been made redundant and guides them in their search for new employment on the labour market as whole.

Public and mass media are entitled to transparency of operations, except information designated as confidential. Public access to information provides citizens the opportunity to read documents held by agencies and, thereby, examine the organisation.

Government employees have a broad freedom of expression. This means the right to inform outsiders of the operations of agencies, as long as it does not concern information designated as confidential. This also entails the right to submit information to the mass media. This is known as the freedom to publish for civil servants and others.

The right to collective bargaining, trade union freedom and strike is recognised for public sector employees.

Career-Based System - Training

The Civil Service Basic Statute considers the career and promotion public employees jointly and as aright. It differentiates between:

• Horizontal Career is grade, category or step advancement without the need to change job.

• Vertical Career consists of promotion in the structure of positions through the provision of positions set out in the Statute.

• Internal Promotion, which is promotion from one Corps or Scale in a sub-group or from one group to another higher group.

• Horizontal Internal Promotion which consists of entry to Corps or Scales of the same professional sub-group.

Internal promotion is a system open to all civil servants of the same group of qualifications fulfilling the requirements to enter the new corps and a minimum period of two years in the current corps or scale. Competitive tests need to be passed: by the system of competitive examination or competition-examination according to the constitutional principles of equality, merit, ability and advertising.

The Civil Service Basic Statute differentiates between Professional Career and Promotion for civil servants and non-civil service employees. The career systems defined in the Statute are pending development by the State and Autonomous Communities.

Non-civil service employees: Their career development and promotion is in accordance with the procedures set out in the Workers’ and Collective Agreements Statute.

Performance Appraisal. The Civil Service Basic Statute links career and pay with performance appraisal, which forces Public Administrations to establish appraisal systems for their public employees. It is conceived as a procedure that measures and evaluates professional conduct and performance or the fulfilment of results and should be carried out using criteria of transparency, objectivity, impartiality and nondiscrimination, without infringing the rights of public employees.

It is currently pending development, so the previous model, based on level intervals and personal grades, remains in force during the transitory period.

• Level intervals are career expectations for civil servants in their corps or scale. There are 30 levels; the civil servant career begins at the lowest level of each group and may reach the maximum level at the end of the career.

• Personal Grade is the axis of civil servant professional promotion in accordance with their professional path. The grade is acquired through performance over two consecutive years, or 3 years with a break, of a job in the same level or a higher one than the grade to be entered.

Successive grades are obtained using the same system. If the position changes level during its performance, the higher level shall be considered for the grade. A higher grade than the maximum level in the interval corresponding to the civil servant’s qualification group cannot be obtained. The personal grade is important for pay, mobility and provision of jobs.

Remuneration

Civil Servants

The pay system for civil servants is established by law and the quantities of pay are public (some appear in the General Budgetary Laws of the different Public Administrations, and others in the Job Positions List). Basic pay is the same in all Public Administrations and, according to the Civil Service Basic Statute, consists of the salary and the three-year increment for each sub-group or group. The General State Budgetary Law establishes the annual global pay increase which is applied to all public employees.

However, until the laws to enact the Civil Service Basic Statute are passed, the previous pay system is maintained, which consists of the following concepts:

1. Basic Pay. This is calculated according to the qualification sub-group or group of the Corps or Scale to which the civil servant belongs. It includes:

• Salary. The same amount is assigned to each group of academic qualifications. Training and knowledge accredited during recruitment are rewarded.

• Three-year Increments. This is the same amount for each Group and for each three years of service. Seniority is rewarded.

• Extraordinary Payments. They are calculated in accordance with the time in service during the six months in which they are received. They are paid twice a year (June and December). Each extraordinary payment consists of a month’s basic pay and all of the additional payments, except those corresponding to performance or extraordinary service carried out outside working hours.

2. Additional pay. This pay is received in accordance with the characteristics of the position, professional career or performance of duties.

• Position Bonus rewards the level of the position. The maximum and minimum limits for the level of the position performed are established for each qualification group.

• Specific Bonus, rewards special conditions of responsibility, technical or laborious difficulty of the position. There are different scales of specific bonus.

• Productivity Bonus rewards better performance.

• Bonus awarded for extraordinary services provided.

Non-civil service employees

Their pay is determined according to employment legislation, the corresponding collective agreement and the employment contract. Additional payments are usually made up of a month’s basic salary, seniority, and if appropriate, the personal bonus for consolidated seniority.

Social Dialogue And System Of Representation

Civil servants are entitled to strike and union membership with the exception of the Armed Forces, Civil Guard and Judges, Magistrates and Prosecutors, (although professional associations are allowed) and limited for the National Security Forces and Corps, which affects them for independent collective bargaining. The main trade union organizations representing public employees at a state level are: The Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (CCOO), the General Workers’ Union (UGT) and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions and Trade Union Confederation of Civil Servants (CSI-CSIF). At regional level, ELA and CIG in Galicia are representative. By sector (mainly health and education) there are other important trade unions.

The main regulation in this sphere is set out in Organic Law 11/1985, of 2nd August, on Trade Union Freedom and Law 7/2007, of 12th April on the Civil Service Basic Statute, which define two different channels for representation and negotiation: unitary bodies (Staff Councils, Works Committees and Staff Delegates, which are representation bodies elected directly by the employees of each Ministry or organization, with extremely limited negotiating capacity) and trade union bodies (with extensive negotiating power, that channel institutional dialogue. Their representatives and negotiators are appointed by the trade unions).

In the public service sector, collective bargaining on working conditions is carried out via different Commissions: General Public Administration Commission, in which basic issues are negotiated, hence affecting all public employees and all Administrations and their agreements are nation-wide. It is unitary. On the one hand, there are the Public Administrations (State, which presides, Autonomous Communities, Cities of Ceuta and Melilla and Local Administration), and on the other hand, the trade union organizations according to the results obtained in the elections to the aforementioned unitary bodies.

Another General Commission in each territorial administration is responsible for negotiating issues that are common to civil servants, non-civil service employees and statutory employees in its own region. There is another specific Commission for civil servants. Depending on these General Commissions, Sectorial Commissions may also exist for specific fields, essentially healthcare and universities.

Therefore, it is possible to talk about centralized negotiation but within the decentralization of the Spanish regional system, which means that negotiations are not carried out individually by Ministries (Departments in the case of regions) but rather centrally via the aforementioned Commissions, but only a small part of the subjects (basic issues) must be negotiated in the joint and centralized state sphere.

Potential issues for negotiation are extensive, as only specific aspects related to selfgoverning powers, management and hierarchical control, working conditions of senior executives, citizens’ rights, etc. are excluded from the obligation to negotiate, as they are the exclusive competence of the Administration.

Senior Civil Servants

The highest levels of Central Administration are called Superior Bodies (Ministers and Secretaries of State) and do not have to be civil servants, although they are on many occasions. At a lower level, there are Management Bodies (Secretary-Generals, Under-Secretaries, Technical Secretary-Generals, Director- Generals and Deputy Director-Generals). They must all be career civil servants with the exception of Secretary-Generals and, in exceptional and duly justified circumstances, Director- Generals. The Civil Service Basic Statute considers the category of management personnel, the development of which is pending. It contemplates the possibility that they may also be non-civil service employees. Each Autonomous Community has the power to establish its own legal system and conditions, but a common requirement is that they are recruited on the grounds of merit and ability, suitability criteria, using procedures guaranteeing publication and competition. Management personnel are evaluated according to the criteria of efficiency, effectiveness, responsibility in their management and the monitoring of results.

As this figure does not exist and that of management personnel has not been developed, in order to maintain the structure of the study and its comparative purposes, the heads of the Superior and Management Bodied defined in Law 6/1997 of 14th April, on the Organization and Functioning of the General State Administration, shall be used, whereby political appointment does not necessarily need to be a civil servant.

All of these positions are freely appointed and removed and are not limited to career. Ministers are appointed and removed by the President of the Government. State Secretaries, Secretary-Generals, Under-Secretaries, Technical Secretary- Generals and Director-Generals are appointed and removed by the Government on the recommendation of the corresponding Minister. Deputy Director-Generals are appointed and removed by the State Secretary. All career-based civil servants occupying these positions must belong to Sub-Group A1, except for those positions that may be carried out by non-civil servants.

Recent Reforms and Prospects

The need for a reform of public employment to adapt to current needs was unquestionable, and there was consensus from all social sectors, political groups, public employees and their representative bodies.

Article 103.3 of the Constitution required a specific law to be drawn up to regulate the status of civil servants and Article 149.1.18ª gives the State the power in the foundations of this statutory system. The last important reform in this area was in 1984, whereby its regulations which continue transitorily, whilst the Civil Service Basic Statute (EBEP) approved by Law 7/2007, of 12th April is being developed, state that:

• The need to create common regulatory framework for all public employees (civil servants and non-civil service employees) that guarantees recruitment and career development based on common criteria and the constitutional principles of merit, ability, equality and advertisement, with a fair balance between the rights and responsibilities of public employees.

• The need for the Public Administrations to have appropriate legal mechanisms for the planning and organization of their staff.

• The gradual transfer of services to the Autonomous Communities and the need to resolve problems derived from human resource management.

• Enable each Administration to form its own human resource policy, without detriment to the necessary elements of cohesion and coordination mechanisms.

The Civil Service Basic Statute is currently in the development phase, both in the State and the Autonomous Communities, which must take place in the audience of the sectors involved and the employee representatives, which requires an in-depth study into its aims and consequences, which is why it has not yet been finalized.

Publications

Title of the publication

Main tables

Title of top Main tables folder, see:

Title(s) of second level folder (if any)

Title(s) of third level folder (if any)

Database

Title of top Database folder, see: