Response to interpellation 2024/25:326 on the gig economy and exploitation of foreign workers
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 L argues that the government has taken important measures to regulate the gig economy and counter exploitation 1. 1 L emphasizes that there is extensive regulation in the transport sector 1 and that the investigation into the platform directive is necessary to improve working conditions 1. 2 3 L argues that the shadow society and lack of control are the root causes of people being exploited 2 3. 3 L argues that the problem is primarily that the regulations are not followed 3. 4 V argues that the EU directive aims for platform workers to be recognized as employees 4. 5 V argues that the platform economy makes it easy to bypass employer responsibility 4 and that policy creates or removes the shadow society 5. 6 V believes that the government must take major steps against those who deceive and exploit people in the labor market 6. 7 L argues that the government is making major investments in labor market crime 7.
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)
Madam Speaker! Ciczie Weidby has asked me what measures I intend to take in connection with an investigative report series about an application that offers assignments in the transport sector. She has further asked me what measures I intend to take to regulate the so-called gig economy and improve the conditions for platform workers, as well as what measures I intend to take to counter the occurrence of exploitation of workers from other countries, which takes place in increasingly larger parts of the Swedish labor market.
I would like to thank Ciczie Weidby for the pressing questions and for a commitment that I share. The Government has taken several important measures in this area.
Initially, I want to be clear that there is extensive regulation in the transport sector to ensure fair competition, high traffic safety, and good working conditions. These rules naturally also apply to the gig economy.
Regarding platform work and the gig economy, the government decided on 21 November 2024 that a special investigator shall propose how the European Parliament and Council's directive on improved working conditions for platform work, the so-called platform directive, shall be implemented in Swedish law (dir. 2024:116). Technical developments have changed working life and created growth and opportunities for new services and jobs through digital work platforms. The emergence of platform work can, however, lead to new business models and forms of contracting that risk creating uncertainty about who is an employee. The platform directive aims, among other things, to improve working conditions for persons employed in the platform industry. The investigation shall report its assignment by 31 December 2025 at the latest.
The Delegation against crime in the working life (dir. 2021:74 etc.) shall submit its final report to the government no later than 28 February 2025. The delegation shall, according to the additional directives (dir. 2024:26) issued on 22 February 2024, specifically analyze and submit proposals concerning specific criminal schemes in the working life in, among other things, the transport sector, but also submit proposals to improve the conditions for combating crime in the working life.
The Government extended and strengthened the mandate on lasting agency cooperation on September 19, 2024. The mandate runs until 2026. In the mandate, the Government writes, among other things, that the agencies' work shall be developed to strike harder against the criminal economy, organized crime in a corporate environment, human trafficking, human smuggling, and human exploitation in work. I can also mention that the agencies within the cooperation against crime in the labor market have identified the importance of preventive measures and more unannounced inspections in the transport sector.
When it comes to the authorities' work, I want to emphasize that human trafficking and human exploitation constitute crimes under Swedish law. The Government has made major efforts to strengthen the justice system and the work against organized crime.
I also want to mention that the government has appointed an inquiry (dir. 2024:56) on a new work environment strategy for the period 2026-2030 which shall, among other things, analyze crime and employees' vulnerability to threats and pressure, as well as increasing digitalization and the development of new technology. The assignment shall be reported by June 11, 2025, at the latest.
Ciczie Weidby (V)
Madam Speaker! Thank you very much for the opening remarks, Paulina Brandberg!
I note that the Minister, in his/her answer, refers quite a lot to the upcoming investigation which is to see how the EU directive on improved working conditions for what we call platform work, the platform directive, shall be implemented in Swedish law. I will just say a few quick words about that.
The EU directive is about more people working on the platforms and that they should be recognized as employees. It is also about clarifying that the platforms have an employer and work environment responsibility.
The entire directive would not have come about at all in the first place if it were not for the fact that very many platform workers in different countries organized themselves and lobbied parliament with support from the European left-wing parties.
It remains to be seen, of course, what the investigation will conclude. In its directive, the Government has established that the Swedish concept of an employee is not to be investigated. In Swedish law, we have no statutory definition of who is an employee. It is largely regulated by the parties in the labor market. That is, in itself, a good arrangement. I and the Vänsterpartiet defend that model. But the question is simply how it should be defended against the entire gig sector's attempts to constantly evade and circumvent employer responsibility. We will definitely return to that debate.
The question is simply what the government and Paulina Brandberg can imagine doing to remedy the problems we have today. This is an industry that is growing more and more all the time.
My interpellation takes its starting point in Hem & Hyras review of one of all these platforms called Tiptapp. Tiptapp is marketed as an app where friendly neighbors are to help out.
I am cleaning my storage room and am going to the recycling center. I think I can take more things with me. I advertise and post on Tiptapp that I am on my way to the recycling center. Then Paulina Brandberg sees it: God, how great, Ciczie is going to take old things there! How great, then maybe she can take my things with her at the same time.
Said and done. It will be a deal via the platform, and I am taking Paulina Brandberg's things with me.
It is just that when Hem & Hyra inspects this, it turns out that the people who take on the assignments to transport waste and all sorts of things and to move things are not a bunch of friendly neighbors who help out and do this. It turns out that it is quite recurring that it is the same people. They are non-European citizens, very many lack a professional driving license, many do not have a driver's license and so on. It is a lot of complications.
This is just one of all those platforms that manage to get everything completely wrong. We don't know who is the employer or who is selling and to whom. In the end, a huge number of people end up caught in the middle and not just caught in the middle. They end up in a bad situation.
What I wonder is whether Paulina Brandberg could in some way comment on the growing industry that constantly bypasses all decent and reasonable working conditions.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! To begin with, I want to say that I share the problem picture that the interpellator presents here. It simply must not go on in that way in Sweden as the review shows.
We have commissioned the inquiry into the platform industry, and we must, of course, await it to see how we proceed with the questions related to the gig economy. But we must look at the question more broadly than that.
The review here shows, just as the interpellor is pointing out, that we have individuals performing these services who lack professional licenses and lack driver's licenses. They are sometimes in Sweden under false identities.
This is rooted in the major problem we have with a widespread shadow society in Sweden. We have far too many people living in Sweden under fraudulent conditions. They are often brought here by other people who simply earn money by exploiting them in various parts of our working life.
This is a sector. We also have other industries where this is a huge problem. The construction industry and the forestry industry are other examples. We need to look at the issue in the broader perspective.
Agency cooperation was needed here. We need to have a cooperation between, for example, the Swedish Migration Agency, the law enforcement agencies, and the Social Insurance Agency. All agencies that might have pieces of the puzzle in this need to be involved.
That is why I am very proud and happy that the government has stepped up the work with agency cooperation. We have now expanded centers against crime against the working life in every police region. We have also heavily resourced this in our budget so that we can have effective work there.
This is a problem from several sides. It is not worthy that people in our country perform work under often slave-like conditions. It is not worthy of our country.
It is also a problem that this type of work completely distorts competition. It is not possible for serious companies to survive when they have to compete with companies whose business idea is to exploit people's vulnerable situations to make money and then compete with low prices.
From the government's side, we are working on this issue both from the perspective of crime in the working life and from the regulatory frameworks we have regarding the gig economy.
I look forward to receiving the reports that will be submitted to the Government Offices in the near future so that we can identify concrete measures and move this issue forward.
Ciczie Weidby (V)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Paulina Brandberg!
I never mean, and will never ever mean, that Paulina Brandberg would not think it is wrong to exploit people in what we have chosen to call the shadow society. But on the other hand, I mean that it is the politics that either creates or removes a shadow society.
That people end up in the shadows and are pulled into the shadows is due to several different things. People, of course, come to Sweden for a multitude of different reasons. Very often it is for the exact same reason that Karl Oskar and Kristina, and a huge part of Sweden's population, took their belongings and moved to America. They were poor, and it was not possible to support themselves.
We have entire continents where unemployment is so enormous that the only thing one can do is at least try to move somewhere else, even if one earns very little money even in that country.
It is clear that it is skewed all over the world. But that they come specifically to Sweden and do this is because it is being enabled. That must be remembered.
There has always been cheating and so on, and those who have exploited labor. But with the platform economy, there is no order and tidiness. We on the Swedish labor market are a bit used to someone being employed and someone paying the wages. The intermediary, the platform, makes it so that one doesn't really know who the principal is. Is it the one who orders the food who has the responsibility and is the employer, the principal, and so on? It is all these terms that make it always easy to bypass this. So we cannot have that. We must know who is employing and who is working.
Tiptapp, which I have now mentioned, is just one of many. The Minister has surely read a lot about Uber, which is a very large actor all over the world. People go into debt because they provide the car themselves and so on. And they have to work incredibly much to get very little money.
Madam Speaker! I do not only want to hear from the Minister which investigations are awaited. I would also really like to hear how she views the fact that the labor market has moved from a bit more order and structure – where we know who does what – to a fluid market where people can simply be exploited and where we as consumers pay less and less for all services instead of paying what it costs.
Madam Speaker! I would like to hear Paulina Brandberg mention some kind of measure that one could imagine, and I would like to know what she thinks about the labor market becoming more and more fluid.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! One can look at which countries the people we are talking about in this specific issue come from. It is no coincidence that they are countries where there is a large social vulnerability and where people are often desperate when it comes to finding ways to support themselves and their families. Unfortunately, there is little the government can do to influence the vulnerability in these countries other than what can be done through general international cooperation.
But the next question we need to ask ourselves concerns, of course, what the interpellor raises. Why do people come to Sweden specifically? I mean that a large part of the answer is that it is because we have poor control over the Swedish labor market. It is simply too easy to conduct this type of activity without anything happening. One can earn very much money, and no one intervenes. One can continue to exploit people on the Swedish labor market without the authorities acting in any way. So we cannot have that.
That is why, in my previous answer, I touched upon precisely the importance of agency cooperation and that we are fighting on several fronts against the shadow society that we have. We in Sweden need to know which people are in our country. We do not know that today, Madam Speaker. We have an incredibly poor overview of it. Many of the people who are here and whom we do not have an overview of are people who are being exploited in this way. These are people who often come to Sweden with hopes of being able to earn large sums of money, but the reality is rarely as bright as it has been painted by the people who have helped them to Sweden.
We need to ensure that we get better order and clarity. There are many actors who need to take their responsibility. I mean that it is not primarily our regulatory framework that is wrong, but it is precisely that it is not followed that is the problem. Therefore, we need to ensure that all authorities that can combat the shadow society get better opportunities to use their toolboxes. We obviously have toolboxes at our law enforcement agencies but also at other agencies, and they need to be used.
When it comes to the justice system, it is no secret that we have a situation in Sweden with very extensive organized crime, and this is a part of the organized crime that we really must combat. Therefore, I am glad that we are a government that has made extremely large investments in precisely the justice system in our budget. If we are to be able to handle not only the shootings and explosions, which unfortunately have become commonplace in our country, but also this type of serious organized crime, which is what it actually is a question of, we need to ensure that the police and prosecutors have the resources to handle it. I mean that the government's addition to the budget in this area is of absolutely crucial importance.
Ciczie Weidby (V)
Madam Speaker! I agree with the last thing Paulina Brandberg said about money for the justice system. I also think it is very good. People must be held accountable for exploiting individuals. But I believe that the government must also address it outwardly. The only things being addressed now, regarding where justice should be dispensed and who should be held accountable, are completely different areas. It would be very good if the Minister or the government actually said: Now we must also take major steps regarding those who deceive and exploit people in the labor market.
I am no friend of the word shadow society. It very often refers to some people who live in the shadows – and it is always those who are exploited – and that it is these, those who are exploited, who in some way bear the blame for this and not those who actually exploit them.
This is crime, just as Paulina Brandberg said. There should be agency cooperation – absolutely, every day of the week. But it is also about really addressing this and clearly saying: This is not okay. We must have order and clarity. There must also be order and clarity when it comes to the platform economy. It is not always about exactly that form, but it is how one bypasses the system and tricks people into living as some kind of working poor that is the big problem. I hope that Paulina Brandberg also thinks this is important.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! We live in a time where we have major societal problems that take up 90 percent of the media oxygen. We have gang crime. We have war in our surrounding world.
I would have wished that we had had a larger media space even for the type of problems that we are talking about here. It concerns crime in the working life, exploitation of people in the Swedish labor market and other major social problems, not least the problem with women exposed to violence. I want to be very clear that from the government's side, we are making major investments in this area, even if it does not receive as much media attention as other measures.
In our budget, we are not only investing large resources in our justice system so that it can cope with the situation we find ourselves in. In the budget bill for 2025, we also added 100 million for precisely agency cooperation against crime against the working life. We have also increased the administrative appropriation for Arbetsmiljöverket, which is a very important agency in this cooperation. They will be reinforced with a supplement of 50 million. Then, that supplement is estimated to amount to 75 million for 2026 and 100 million for 2027. These are important funds to bring order and clarity to the Swedish labor market.
I want to be very clear: The situation we have today in the Swedish labor market is not worthy of our country. Sweden should be a country where people go to work, have a good working environment, earn fair wages, and have a sustainable and secure working life. That is not where we are today. We in this government will continue to work every day so that we can get there, because no other alternative exists.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.