Den semidispositiva arbetstidsregleringen : att avvika från Arbetstidslagen genom centrala avtal

Sammanfattning: The Working Hours Act regulates the working time conditions and together with the Working Time Directive of EU both acts aim to protect the workers. However, with The Swedish Model it is possible to diverge from the law-regulations by collective agreement by the parts of the Swedish labor market. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the national and international law regulations and further on study a few selected Swedish central collective agreements to discover in which extension deviation from the law occur. The sections of the Working Hours Act’s that has been investigated is ordinary working time, daily rest, weekly rest periods, breaks and maximum weekly working time. To do this, a jurisprudential method has been used. The examination shows that agreements made by the parts of the labor market highly differentiate from Swedish law. This is due to adjustments to local conditions and flexible purposes. This effects the workers as the terms of their working hours can be found in different documents, international or Swedish law as well as in central or local collective agreements. Another effect of the deviation from the law is that the workers-organizations receive a great amount of power and influence of the workers working-conditions. They are responsible for negotiating for all the workers, whether they are members in the workers-organization or not. The Working Hours Act and the Work Environment Act have strong connections and the Swedish Working Environment Authority is currently working on a provision regarding the organizational and social working conditions. If it will be approved later this year it may influence the upcoming collective agreements. However, as of today, there is no assurance that the provision will be accepted. The possibility to replace the Working Hours Act by central collective agreements affects the protective intentions of the law. Instead of being confirmed in national law it is regulated in the collective agreements and therefore the protection of the workers varies depending on what sector they work.