Like many countries the world over, Sweden receives a large number of Posted Workers every year who are sent by their preexisting employers outside Sweden to work within the country under the oversight of one of their employer’s local customers or corporate partners. Such service arrangements are often necessitated by local labor shortages in a given profession, but in some cases, posted workers might also have lower salary expectations than their Swedish counterparts. Additionally, like all western countries, Sweden has enacted legislation and entered into international treaties to regulate where foreign individuals and companies who are active both in Sweden and abroad should be taxed. These rules sometimes allow posted workers and their employers to pay some or all of their income taxes and social fees in their usual country of residence, which can often lower the labor cost and increase the employee’s retention rate. For many years, court precedents from the Swedish Labor Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, chiefly in the form of the so-called Laval verdict from 2010, also limited Swedish Labor Unions from initiating industrial action against companies using or deploying posted employees in Sweden in situations involving lower compensation and benefits than Swedish workers.

The current government, led by the labor union's traditional political ally, the Social Democratic Party, is very open with its goal of bringing the employment terms for posted workers more into line with the salary standards enforced by the Swedish labor unions. The primary goal of these measures is to ensure fair competition between foreign and domestic companies and ease downward pressure on workers earnings within the Swedish market. Already in 2017, legislation was introduced to increase Swedish Labor Union ability to circumvent the Laval verdict. As a continuation of this process, the Swedish parliament will, on the 30th of July 2020, tighten the preexisting rules regarding the posting of staff members to Sweden. In short, the legal changes enacted are the following:

• New Posted Workers must be registered with Arbetsmiljöverket (the Swedish Work Environment Authority) no later than on the first day of the posting, no matter how short their assignment. Previously, it was sufficient to register posted workers within 5 days of arrival, which also excused postings lasting less than 5 days from registration. The fine for a foreign employer failing to register a posting in time currently remains SEK 20,000 per employee, but Arbetsmiljöverket is authorized by the parliament to increase this amount if they deem it prudent. There is currently no process in place for employers to register postings after the deadline without risking a fine, but long-term non-compliance can lead to additional penalties.

• The companies in Sweden receiving the services of posted employees sent to Sweden by a foreign employer are to be given documents proving that the postings have been registered. Any business that has not received such documentation within three days of the work being commenced is obligated to report the situation to Arbetsmiljöverket for investigation or risk becoming co-liable for the fines mentioned above.

• The employer of posted workers is obligated to provide food and housing during the posting, or ensure that they have access to such, though the exact forms that benefit take can vary.

• The Swedish labor unions are granted a greater license than before with regards to initiating industrial actions, such as delivery blockades and strikes, for the purpose of forcing foreign employers to sign Swedish collective agreements for their posted employees. For assignments lasting 12 months or less, a Swedish union can now initiate an industrial action against a posting employer for the purpose of enforcing Swedish national collective agreement terms regarding salary levels, expense reimbursements, per diems, and housing, and for the purpose to help police government-mandated requirements such as the Swedish laws regulating paid vacation, parental leave, work hours, measures against discrimination, and workplace safety.

• For long-lasting postings, Swedish labor unions are free to initiate industrial action for the purpose of enforcing almost all types of existing collective agreement terms. A posting is normally regarded as having lasted long-term when 12 months have passed from the first day a given role was filled in Sweden by a posted employee. Replacing individual employees with newly posted employees will not reset this time limit as long as the role remains more or less the same. However, if an assignment extension is registered with Arbetsmiljöverket before the 12-month limit is exceeded, the rules for limited union enforcement can stay in effect for up to 18 months in total. When an assignment becomes classed as long-term, the Swedish labor unions ability to enforce the signing of collective agreement terms is greatly expanded, and only the procedural matters relating to the entering and termination of employment contracts as well as the wording of non-compete clauses will still remain outside the scope of Swedish industrial actions relating to posted workers.

To enable the posted workers themselves to determine what Swedish collective agreement terms a union could help them enforce, employers will be obligated to inform the staff they post to Sweden of how long their role or assignment they are sent to fulfill has been active in Sweden.