Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935 (No. 47) - Sweden (Ratification: 1982)

Article 1 of the Convention. The principle of the 40-hour week. The Committee notes the comments submitted by the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees (TCO) concerning the 2011 amendments to the Working Hours Act. In this respect, the TCO is critical of the removal of the requirement that an employer has to apply for an exemption from the law for additional overtime, extra overtime, and emergency overtime as this will mean, in practice, that such overtime will automatically be permitted, the employer will not be required to give reasons for such overtime, and the result will be hazardous for employees. The TCO estimates that in practice this amendment means an automatically permitted overtime of 350 hours per year instead of the previous 200 hours per year. The TCO further states that overtime is used increasingly as an alternative to hiring additional employees, i.e., an increase of over 11 per cent between 2009 and 2012, and permissible overtime has increased from 200 hours per year to 350 hours per year. Moreover, the TCO expresses its concern that, by lowering the level of protection in legislation, employers may likewise attempt to avoid having such prerequisites to additional overtime requests in the context of upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. Finally, the TCO states its opposition to transferring the responsibilities for the enforcement of the provisions of the Working Hours Act to the safety delegate. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in reply to the observations of the TCO.