City councillor pushes for 30 hour work week in Sweden

Leader of the Left party on Gothenburg’s City Council, Daniel Bernmar, is currently running a trial mandating a 30-hour week for workers and is hoping to make it the standard in Sweden. An audit published in mid-April concluded that the program had seen a sharp decrease in absenteeism, and improved productivity and worker health in its first year, according to a recent New York Times article.

“We’ve had 40 years of a 40-hour work week, and now we’re looking at a society with higher sick leaves and early retirement. We want a new discussion in Sweden about how work life should be to maintain a good welfare state for the next 40 years.” said Bernmar.

A contact at a large Swedish wholesaler said that if the unions were to go along with the decision to lower the working week to 30 hours, they would have no choice but to comply, however, not without consequence.

"We can't plan things in advance in the fruit and vegetable trade like other people can in other industries. Fresh products, like strawberries, don't like to wait and need a quick turn around. Our produce arrives in the evening, is packed at night and is in the supermarkets by morning."

"The missing man hours would have to be filled by additional employees and I am afraid that the people who would ultimately pay the price will be the customer. We already have a low margin on our fruit and vegetables so it wouldn't be possible for us to absorb the extra costs."

The CEO of a major Logistics company said that pushing back the working hours in logistics would be impossible as many of his employees are often needing to work overtime of 10 to 15 hours a week on top of their regular 40 hours.

"I think that it is the wrong way to deal with things in Sweden and I am a bit shocked by the proposal. We would have to switch to shifts and double the amount of workers we would need, especially during peak season. I hope that it will just stay as a discussion and stop there. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Maria Rydén, Gothenburg’s deputy and member of the opposition party, has been leading a campaign to kill the trial saying that the switch would cause higher taxes and that the government should stay out of the workplace.

“It’s the type of economic thinking that has gotten other countries in Europe into trouble. We can’t pay people to not work.” said Rydén.