EU Commission criticizes Sweden for failing to comply with the Working Time Directive

The EU Working Time Directive requires that all employees must be entitled to at least 11 hours of daily rest per day, a rule that exists to protect the health and safety of employees. The European Commission has criticised Sweden because a number of collective bargaining agreements do not comply with the rules of the directive. Employers and unions in the public sector have therefore rewritten their agreements on working time, effective from 1 October 2023. However, negotiations are still ongoing for emergency services and personal assistants. While many welcome the change, hundreds of firefighters have in April protested against the new rules, arguing that this could lead to mass resignations. Since many people in the emergency services have their personal situation set up so that they can work, for example, 24-hour shifts and then have a long uninterrupted period of leave, they argue that it will be impossible for them to make their everyday life work with the requirement of 11 hours of daily rest. The firefighters and other emergency services are now hoping that the labour market parties will succeed in negotiating an exemption for emergency services employees. However, no decision has been made so far.