Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Part-Time Work Convention, 1994 (No. 175) - Sweden (Ratification: 2002)

The Committee notes with interest the Government’s first report on the application of the Convention and wishes to receive information on the following points.

Article 8, paragraph 1, of the Convention. The Committee notes that, under the National Insurance Act, insured persons are entitled to sickness allowance, parent’s allowance and employment injury benefits only if their income exceeds 24 per cent of the base amount (SEK 9,500 in 2005). The Government is requested to provide further clarification on this point and to indicate the percentage of part-time workers who are currently deprived of these social security benefits since their qualifying income is below the prescribed limit. In particular, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the fact that the Convention permits under certain conditions the exclusion of part-time workers from the scope of statutory social security schemes except in regard to employment injury benefits, and therefore the Swedish legislation would not appear to be in full conformity with the Convention in this respect.

Article 8, paragraphs 3 and 4. The Committee notes that according to the information provided by the Government in 2002, an estimated 185,000 employees, or 20 per cent of all part-time employees, working between one and 19 hours per week, were excluded from the coverage of the unemployment insurance scheme. The Committee would appreciate receiving up-to-date information on the number of part-time workers falling outside the scope of application of the Unemployment Insurance Act. In addition, the Committee requests the Government to specify whether the most representative organizations of employers and workers were duly consulted prior to the establishment of the thresholds referred to in sections 9 and 12 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, and also to indicate whether any consideration is given to the possibility of extending the protection of unemployment insurance to those part-time workers who are currently excluded.

Articles 9 and 10 and Part V of the report form. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the problem in Sweden is not how to encourage more people to work part time but, on the contrary, how to reduce the amount of involuntary part-time employment, not the least for women, who often work part time with no opportunity of changing to full-time employment when they wish to do so. It also notes that the Government’s primary objective is to promote full-time employment while offering part-time employment as a possibility, and that in this connection, a special investigator was appointed in April 2004 to study ways of strengthening entitlement to full-time employment. The Committee requests the Government to continue supplying general information, including statistics, on the application of the Convention in practice, the place and role of part-time work in the national economy and the ongoing efforts to reduce part-time work, especially with regard to women temporary workers.

Article 11. While noting that the Convention is given effect mainly through legislation, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether collective agreements, either at the branch or at the enterprise level, contain specific clauses regulating part-time work, and if so, to transmit copies of any such documents.