A new era for the Swedish labour law model

Research problem and specific questionsDuring the last ten years the role of the labour market parties in the legislative process has strengthened. Different kinds of tripartite collaborations between the labour markets parties and the state have developed. The development peaked in the process behind the recent changes of the Swedish Employment Protection Act.

Before that, other legislative processes like the ones leading to a new law on short time work, jobs for establishment and new restrictions on the right to strike also had clear tripartite dimensions.

The aim of this research project is to clarify the driving forces behind this development, the implications of it in terms of rights and obligations for the actors affected, influence on the Swedish industrial relations regime and on the autonomy of the labour market parties.Data and methodAn interdisciplinary research method shall be used in the project.

Legally relevant data shall be collected though a legal dogmatic method.

The legal dogmatic method is used to analyse the content of the four legislative products that is the result of tripartite collaboration and to identify the distribution of rights and obligations between different groups of workers.

Here also a comparative legal method will be used to reflect on the legal prerequisites for the tripartite collaboration in comparison with how such collaboration is regulated in other EU-countries.

In order to identify the driving forces and the division of power it has resulted in methods used within social-legal studies will be used.

An interview study will be conducted and methods for textual analysis based on indutrial relations theories will be used in these cases.Plan for the project realisationThe project will run for three years.

The project will be carried out by the project leader, one co-researcher, a researcher and a post-doc, with the support of two reference groups.

One to safeguard the overall quality of the studies and one with labour law experts from other EU-countries to give input to the comparative study.RelevanceThe study is the first one taking a comprehensive approach to this new phenomenon of the Swedish labour law model.

It contributes with crucial knowledge on the function of labour market relations in our time and of the results the new processes have for actors on the labour market. The result is likely to be of interest for both Swedish and international legal and industrial relations research.