Response to interpellation 2024/25:120 on sexual harassment
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns sexual harassment in the workplace and the government's responsibility to counter it. L argues that sexual harassment is a form of discrimination and that employers have a duty to investigate as well as a responsibility to work preventatively 1. L emphasizes the importance of the Discrimination Act being complied with and that the underlying causes must be addressed, including by handling digital dimensions and norms in society 2 3 4. S argues that the government's response lacks ambition and that it is unacceptable that many young women and fixed-term employees are still affected. S demands answers on how the government will get employers to take responsibility and questions why investigation proposals are still being prepared 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Mr. Speaker! I have been asked what I intend to do so that sexual harassment does not occur.
I would like to thank the member for the commitment to the issue.
Sexual harassment affecting workers, often young women, is unacceptable. An equal and safe working life for everyone is an important issue for me as Minister for Equality and Working Life.
According to the Discrimination Act, sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that is prohibited in the workplace. The employer has a duty to investigate in cases where it becomes aware that someone feels sexually harassed. The employer shall work preventatively to counteract sexual harassment. That work includes that the employer shall have guidelines and routines for the operations in order to prevent harassment and sexual harassment.
It is important that the Discrimination Act is complied with. The Equality Ombudsman has the mandate to ensure that the law is followed and, through that, has an important role in the work to counter, among other things, sexual harassment in the workplace.
The goal of the equality policy in Sweden is that women and men shall have the same power to shape society and their own lives. A working life free from sexual harassment is a prerequisite for that goal to be achievable.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Mr. Speaker! Unfortunately, I am incredibly dismayed to hear the Minister's response to my interpellation and the questions I have posed. I wondered what the Minister intends to do so that sexual harassment does not occur. The question is not anywhere near being answered. The response breathes no ambitions, and I even wonder if the Minister feels any responsibility at all for the serious situation.
According to the trade union Handels' harassment barometer, every fifth employee within the trade has been subjected to sexual harassment in the last year. Just as for the entire working population, young people, temporary employees, and women are the most vulnerable group. The survey also shows that the perpetrator is just as often a customer as a colleague. Temporary employees run an even greater risk of being affected.
Only one in five tells their manager that they have been subjected to sexual harassment, gross unwanted behavior, or other discrimination. Of those who have been subjected to sexual harassment and who tell their manager, supervisor, or HR about what happened, only every other person experiences that the employer has taken measures afterwards.
This is a very serious reading of an important report made by the trade union Handels regarding how young women with insecure employment are subjected to sexual harassment during their time at work. It is time they spend earning their livelihood, money earned to be able to pay bills and rent. Many times this occurs at their first job, where they get their first experiences on the labor market. The experiences should actually be about how wonderful it is to receive a salary, month in and month out, and to make new friends in colleagues. It is about gaining experience of good leadership that makes one challenged and developed. It should not be experiences that are about insecurity and a terrifying vulnerability.
The trade union Kommunals' newspaper conducted a review last year which showed that nursing assistants, personal assistants, and care assistants are the occupational groups where people most often become sick leave as a result of being subjected to sexual harassment. They account for 62 percent of the reports where harassment has led to occupational disease. The statistics have been requested from the Swedish Work Environment Authority. To be counted as an occupational disease, the harassment must be so serious that it has led to mental health issues. These figures are incredibly serious. Behind them are an enormous number of women who are subjected to this daily.
It is unacceptable that we have not come further. That the government needs to take measures is completely obvious. Does the government have any agreement on ambition? I hope that the minister takes the chance to give us more answers than those we have received so far.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Mr. Speaker! What the member describes as many, especially young women, experience in their working lives is of course completely unacceptable, and there is legislation that says that this is not permitted, is not acceptable, and should not occur. The problem we have to deal with here is how we get the legislation that is in place to be applied in the way we want. How do we get employers to take the responsibility they have according to the law? How do we ensure that occurring cases of discrimination are reported to the Equality Ombudsman so that the law can be applied?
There are no simple answers here. That does not mean that one should not have ambitions, but there are no simple answers as such, I mean, that appear when one listens to Member Amloh.
Employers need to take a great responsibility for the issue. Of course, employers should receive support on how to take responsibility. I know that, among others, Arbetsmiljöverket has previously provided it. But I think it is important to place a great responsibility on employers and of course also on the parties in the labor market, who need to take the issue more seriously than they have until now.
As I said, we in the government are not brushing this aside or suggesting that it is not our responsibility. Even though the issue is difficult, we need to find ways to work with it.
The most important thing that I believe we can do is to get to the bottom of this and not just work with the symptoms but also see why it is happening. Why is it that so many people subject other people to sexual harassment? This applies to colleagues, among other things, but we also know that it is a problem that third parties subject employees in, for example, retail to harassment.
I believe that an important part is to work much more with the digital dimensions of violence. We know that young people today live a lot on social media where sexual harassment and offensive remarks have become a normality. The government has therefore given several assignments within just this area, not least for the school. Among other things, the Swedish National Agency for Education has been tasked to investigate how mobile phones and other electronic communication equipment are used in school and after-school centers to see how they are also used in these situations.
I really do not believe that we only have to work with the symptoms, but I believe that we must go to the root of the causes. The digital dimensions are such a place that we must deep-drill into.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Mr. Speaker! The Minister asks many questions, but it is actually the Minister who also needs to answer them. Part of sitting in government and being the responsible minister for these issues is also to provide answers and subsequently take action in the form of interventions and other measures.
I asked for ambitions specifically, not more questions. The question may be answered – I do not know. The answer may be given in upcoming posts or at some other time. But right now, there are very many questions from the Minister and very few answers.
Employers' responsibility has been included in the legislation since before. But obviously, it is not working. I have described a reality from two large trade unions and their members. It is about how things look here and now. What should we then do to get the employers to take greater responsibility? If I am now to try to help the Minister on the fly: Is it sanctions that she imagines would be needed to rectify this, or are there other proposals? I ask the question and hope that I get an answer.
To help a bit more, I can inform the Minister that a government investigation submitted its final report, An expanded protection against discrimination, in December 2021. The consultation period expired in the spring of 2022. The proposals are currently being prepared in the Government Offices, the Minister answered last autumn. Now another year has passed. Is it the case that the proposals are still being prepared? How long does the preparation take? My questions concern whether the government has any intentions at all regarding ambitions. One can only guess how long these proposals need to be prepared in the Government Offices. Will we see anything during the mandate period that would actually make a difference for this situation in the Swedish labor market?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Member Amloh wonders if there will be any sanctions against employers who do not do what they are legally obligated to do. That type of sanction already exists, of course, through our Discrimination Act. The problem is, as I said earlier, that all these situations fly under the radar. They do not come to the Discrimination Ombudsman for review. They do not come to the surface. The Government cannot go out and inspect all workplaces, so we must, of course, find other ways to work with these issues.
I cannot help but note that the member is dodging the question regarding the preventive measures. But those are the ones that make a real difference. Even if we try to see if we can reach more of the many cases where individuals are affected, it is only if we can work with the root causes that there can be any difference. These situations should not arise at all. That must be where we set our goal.
That is why I mean that we need to work with the underlying factors and see what it is that makes so many in our society subject others to this. I believe that the digital dimension and the language used online is one of the most important keys to addressing this, as well as the fact that the issue is raised in our schools. The Government also has many initiatives on exactly this. It is a matter of solutions that handle the problems not only in the working life but in our society as a whole.
I also want to address something that I touched upon briefly in my previous speech. This issue is broad. We see sexual harassment both within workplaces and where there is hate, threats, and harassment coming from the outside. We also see that certain groups are particularly vulnerable. The government has, for example, identified journalists as such a professional group. Linné University has been commissioned to identify, develop, and implement competence and capacity-building measures aimed specifically at journalists and newsrooms to prevent and manage their vulnerability to threats and hate.
We have also given a mandate to SKR, as we see that elected officials are another category where there is a particular vulnerability from third parties. SKR has been tasked to support and develop municipalities' and regions' systematic work to prevent and manage threats and hate against elected officials. Both of the mandates that I have accounted for shall be reported in March 2025.
The government will continue to work continuously with this issue, because it is clearly both an equality issue and a work environment issue that so many are subjected to in the way the figures show.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! I do not shy away from the question regarding the preventive work. I believe the Minister knows that I have many times raised precisely that preventive work and am deeply engaged in how we can work broadly in many ways. But I have requested this interpellation debate in opposition to demand answers from the government. The Minister is here to take the debate and answer my questions.
It is about what happens in the physical space out at the workplaces. It is about both the physical and the verbal. It is about unwanted remarks towards people. I have taken examples concerning retail employees and workers within Kommunal. It is this that I am asking questions about. I have asked what the government wants to do. Does one even want to do anything?
I have also asked a question regarding how one views the proposals from an investigation that would increase protection against discrimination at work. It has now been delayed and postponed for so long that I wonder if anything is being prepared at all. When I demand an answer from the Minister on this, it is not an unreasonable demand from my side, Madam Speaker.
The Minister says it is about the preventive. So it absolutely is. But what do you say to those who actually go and report, who tell their employer? It is only every other girl or woman who experiences some type of measure and considers themselves to have been heard. This sends a signal about how one is received. Does one dare to speak up? Does one dare to say something?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! I want to start by thanking you for the debate. This is an important and pressing issue that affects far too many in Sweden. If we are to address this and truly achieve a change, we must work broadly. We must, of course, ensure that everyone who is subjected to sexual harassment in working life feels that they can turn to their employer and that something happens when they do. The laws we have state that employers have this responsibility and that there should be sanctions if such things occur, and the laws must also be enforced. At the same time, we need, as I have touched upon, to work with the norms and values that lie behind. It is one of the most important things we can do in the work for equality.
The government's work takes place on a broad front within all these areas. I have mentioned some concrete measures here today. I can, as a direct answer to the member's question, say that the investigation she refers to is still being prepared within the Government Offices. We will continue to work on this issue on a broad front. We will, of course, never stop emphasizing the employers' responsibility. This is an issue that the government, together with the labor market parties, must continue to move higher up on the agenda.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.