The working conditions in the Swedish industry

In order to find out information about the working conditions in the Swedish industry, we rode a bus to the Chocolate factory Cloetta, located on the outskirts of Linköping. We interviewed two people : a worker and the human resources manager.

To start with, let us have a look at the figures. The company is composed of four hundred and thirty-seven employees classified in two categories : the blue ones and the white ones. The workers (blue, maybe a reference to the colour of their overalls), make up a group of two hundred and fifty-eight people whereas the officers (white) constitute a hundred and seventy-nine people. Among these employees, two hundred and ten are men and two hundred and twenty-seven are women. Each group has to perform a different task. That is why the blue and the white have different timetables. They all work forty hours a week but whilst the officers can adjust their working time and even finish at 3:30 pm if they want. As for the workers, they have to work according to three shifts : the day shift (from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm), the evening shift (from 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm) and finally the night shift (from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am). This seems to be quite similar to what we have in France.

The gate beyond which white workers have no access

for sanitary reasons

Having said that, the worker we interviewed added that her job was not too hard. The use of robots, made-to-measure earplugs and the allowance to take a break every hour has contributed to enhance the working conditions. Moreover, they have many services on the spot such as massages or gym and hosting facilities in Spain while on holiday. They are allowed to take five weeks off per year too, four of which must be taken during Summer.

From a more financial point of view, the gap between the lowest salary and the highest is smaller than in France, thanks to the action of unions. Actually almost everybody is a union member which depends on the area of work. Each time it is necessary, employees and employers meet and strive to come to an agreement. As a matter of fact, the government plays a minor part in negotiations. Concerning pensioners, they usually retire at the age of sixty-five but prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is thinking of putting it back to seventy-five, provoking a virulent debate. Furthermore, like in France, retired people as well as workers get some money from the equivalent of our Sécurité sociale named Försäkringskassan, which administers social insurance.

This way, we can see that the Swedish model is not so far from ours. At any rate, Swedes are very generous given that the six of us came back home with a full bag of sweets :

Morgane, Solène, Arthur, Brendan, Corentin, Guillaume