Indicator history

Trade unions engage in specific activities recruiting and supporting the rights of minority groups in the field of employment. Labour unions have legal standing to litigate discrimination cases where one of their members is involved. (As a matter of fact, the right of the Equality Ombudsman to represent a victim is secondary to this right of the organisation.)

Labour Law generally assigns to established unions – i.e. unions that uphold a collective agreement with the employer in question – a privileged position. Though Swedish law does not provide for exclusive representation, established unions de facto often speak for the entire employee community.

Swedish labour law is built on the single channel model. The “workers” influence shall be channelled only through the trade unions. Allowing the “workers” to create groups and to go to court in another way would not be consistent with this model. 

A considerable number of cases handeled by the trade unions in anti-discrimination cases are often settled out of court. Most complaints are settled during the mandatory negotiations foregoing a claim to the Labour Court. In these cases remedies much the same as in the case law of the Labour Court are agreed upon – or even better since the parties concerned lower their costs by an early settlement.

Source:

Discrimination Act (2008:567), http://www.notisum.se/rnp/sls/lag/20080567.htm (Accessed, 2012-03-10).