Response to interpellation 2024/25:354 on the vulnerability of young people in the labor market
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the vulnerability of young people in the working life. L argues that employers have a responsibility for the work environment and that the government's measures, such as an upcoming work environment strategy, targeted inspections, and the fight against crime in the working life have an effect 1 2 3 4. L also argues that the government has not removed work environment knowledge from school as the referral bodies did not raise any objections 2 3. S argues that young people are a vulnerable group who risk accidents and harassment 5. S believes that the government is worsening the situation by removing important labor market knowledge from upper secondary education 6 7 and that more measures are needed to ensure that employers take their responsibility 6 8.
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! Johanna Haraldsson has asked me what I and the government are doing to reduce the risk of young workers suffering from work-related injuries and accidents and if I intend to strengthen the work in any way. She has further asked me if I have analyzed how the level of education and information on work-life issues among young people affects their safety and security in the labor market. Finally, she has asked me if I intend to take any measures to strengthen young people's knowledge of their rights and obligations in work life.
Initially, I would like to thank Johanna Haraldsson for highlighting these important issues. I share her commitment to young people's working lives and working environment.
The systematic and preventive work environment work is the foundation of a good work environment. Each employer has a work environment responsibility according to the work environment legislation. When one is young and enters the working life, it is extra important to receive a good introduction at the workplace to avoid accidents and incidents and to gain an understanding of what applies at the workplace.
For persons under 18 years of age, there are provisions in the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulations and general advice (AFS 2023:2) on planning and organizing work environment work - basic obligations for you with employer responsibility. These specify, among other things, what responsibility employers have, how safety representatives shall be informed, and how investigations and risk assessments of the work environment shall be carried out.
During 2024, the Work Environment Authority inspected several industries where it is common for workers between 18 and 24 years of age to work. The purpose of the inspections was to alert employers to the importance of preventing and reducing risks for accidents and incidents, as well as to increase employers' knowledge regarding their work environment responsibilities.
The Government takes questions regarding young people's working lives and the work environment very seriously. The Government has appointed an inquiry into a forthcoming work environment strategy (dir. 2024:56) for the period 2026-2030. The special investigator shall analyze the impact of the current work environment strategy and assess whether the sub-goals for the strategy are appropriately designed. This applies, for example, to the sub-goal A safe working life, which concerns preventing and reducing work-related accidents and ill health and also includes fatal accidents, as well as the sub-goal A healthy working life, which concerns physical risks in the work environment. The assignment shall be reported by June 11, 2025, at the latest.
In conclusion, I want to emphasize that work environment awareness is important for young people who are about to enter the workforce, both in a preparatory stage and when they are in a workplace. I want to underline the importance of every employer taking their work environment responsibility to prevent ill health and accidents for young people in the workforce.
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Getting your first real job is a big deal. You can look forward to learning new things, developing, meeting new people, getting colleagues and earning your own money, perhaps enough to move out from home, become independent and manage on your own. But all too many young people are faced with a completely different reality: poor wages and conditions, unreasonable schedules and solitary work.
Madam Speaker! Young people are a vulnerable group in the labor market. They are at a greater risk of being affected by accidents, work-related injuries, and even fatal accidents at work. They often work part-time with short contracts and insecure employment, and because of that, they are also to a lesser extent members of trade unions.
Many young people have poor knowledge of their rights and obligations in the labor market. They do not have a grasp of collective agreements and work environment regulations. This creates a breeding ground for them to be exploited by employers as well as increases the risk of being exposed to directly dangerous situations at work.
To give young people a stronger position and reduce their vulnerability, more measures are needed. I am convinced that we need better information and knowledge regarding both employees and companies. We need to strengthen the systematic work environment management in the workplaces. We need present trade unions and skilled safety representatives in all workplaces.
The government can ensure that our authorities provide easily accessible and relevant information for young people about their rights and obligations in the labor market. Something else that the government can also do is to ensure that young people receive education about working life before they get their first job.
Of course, there are also proposals for other political measures that can strengthen safety representatives and the trade union presence in the workplaces. But when such proposals have been put forward, bourgeois politicians such as Paulina Brandberg have not been proactive. On the contrary, for example, the deduction right for trade union fees has been abolished. In this chamber, votes have been cast against proposals that could have led to both more and more present safety representatives in the workplaces.
In my interpellation regarding the situation of young people, and what I describe, I am posing a number of questions that I feel I did not receive answers to in the Minister's first contribution. I asked what the Minister and the Government are doing to reduce the risk of young workers suffering work-related injuries and accidents and whether there are plans to strengthen that work. I also wondered if the Minister intends to do anything to strengthen young people's knowledge of their rights and obligations in working life. What does one intend to do moving forward? Does one perhaps have any plans to make important work-life information accessible for young people? I would very much like to receive answers to those questions.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank Member Johanna Haraldsson for the opportunity to have this debate on an extremely topical subject.
The country's young people deserve safe and secure workplaces both physically and mentally. Unfortunately, we can see today that more young people are being poorly affected at the country's workplaces. There is an overrepresentation of both young men and young women in cases of deaths and injuries at work. It shows that we need to place more focus on the working environment for young people, so that they are given the right conditions as they enter working life.
Just as Johanna Haraldsson, I consider that Minister Brandberg in his interpellation answer does not quite answer the questions. This concerns above all the second question, which concerns how the minister and the government analyze the level of education and the information young people receive before they enter the working life. It is an extremely central question.
The Minister points out that it is very important for young people to have this knowledge, but she herself has been involved in making decisions that young people should receive less and poorer instruction and education regarding the conditions of working life and the work environment. In fact, it has been decided to remove a component from a course in social studies that all students in the high school's national program study. This component gave all young people the right to knowledge about the work environment. It may seem strange that this happened.
Even stranger it becomes when one reads Fler vägar till arbetslivet, the report submitted before the turn of the year by the Investigation on more paths to working life. The investigator concludes that a completely new subject in social orientation and work life knowledge needs to be established for students who are to study shortened vocational programs. The investigator asserts, namely, that there are all too general and broad writings in the courses that currently exist in social studies in upper secondary school. The investigator considers that one needs knowledge about working life, the labor market, and employee issues in order to be able to be a good participant in working life and social life. I can actually only agree.
It is a pity that the government has removed the requirements that teachers shall plan and conduct teaching on the labor market, labor law and the work environment, as well as the labor market's parties and their different roles for social development. That is why it is of interest to hear what analysis the minister is making of the level of education today. The course may not have given young people the work skills they need, but it should become even worse in the future when moments regarding work life knowledge in upper secondary school have been completely deleted. It is particularly serious considering that young people are overrepresented in both workplace accidents leading to sick leave and, unfortunately, even deaths at work.
Therefore, the concern should be great regarding the future level of knowledge when students are not even to receive instruction and education on this after they are 15 years old.
I wish that the Minister, in their upcoming response, devotes time to both the analysis the Minister makes of today's education level and of the future education level for today's young people.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Johanna Haraldsson, for the opportunity to have this debate today and to the Minister for providing the answer. This is something that we Social Democrats consider incredibly important. It has already emerged that we believe more needs to be done in this area.
I intend to take the opportunity to highlight more of the problems we see in the Swedish labor market. We see that it is particularly young people and those with insecure employment who are exposed more than many others. It is a specific group that is subject to a very poor working environment.
It is a matter that in many cases today, people become ill from their work. It can also be the case that they do not come home if they suffer the fatal accidents that are frequently reported.
We receive reports and investigations at a fairly high frequency that young people are subjected to sexual harassment to a very large extent. Young women entering the labor market testify to the most appalling situations and incidents that they encounter.
We have listened to trade unions one by one, from municipal workers to retail employees, who tell us how often it occurs. It is many young women, especially those with insecure employment, who experience it.
It is testimony that sounds roughly like this: I never thought that I would be subjected to so much when I entered the workforce. It concerns primarily harassment and sexual harassment.
In the situation that people find themselves in, they need to be very strengthened by having knowledge. What are my rights? What obligations do I have? What routines exist, and what help can I get?
It is remarkable when we have the Minister here today who has given her answer that she claims it is very important. When one says that something is very important, it also needs to be followed up with some kind of action to emphasize those words. Otherwise, it does not become particularly credible.
We have just heard my colleagues explain that, with the other hand in a government position, one removes that part of the education in school. It is about obtaining general knowledge to be equipped and prepared to enter the working life and get a slightly better start. One removes that part, and at the same time, the answer from the Minister echoes very hollowly. It does not show what measures she wants to take.
It is obvious when we see what reality looks like. We receive reports from authorities, trade unions, and individuals. There are thousands of testimonies describing what the situation is for young people on the labor market. Then one should also act and present proposals that would strengthen the young people in the workplace. I hope that we can hear about that in this debate.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! I thought I would start by addressing the claim that the government had removed the subject of work environment issues from school. This is, of course, primarily a question for the Minister for Education, but I can still provide an answer.
This area has not been removed from the subject plans, the graduation goals, or the curricula. What has happened is that it is expressed in a different way that is more purposeful.
It is a change that has been necessary because we are now moving to subject grades, in contrast to how we have had it previously. It was a decision that was made in December 2023 that the upper secondary school would no longer be course-designed but subject-designed. This change is part of that.
The proposal has also been referred to a wide range of referral bodies, including LO, TCO, Svenskt Näringsliv and a number of industries. They have either chosen not to respond or they have responded and had no comments on the proposals regarding the new content.
I see no reason to question their referral responses. I am quite convinced that if it had been the case that they had seen major risks with the new direction, they would have stated that in their referral responses.
We will, of course, follow up on this. The changes will be applied to education that begins after June 30 this year. We will, of course, closely monitor what young people's knowledge looks like regarding what rights they have in the labor market.
When it comes to what the government does otherwise in the area, it is the employer who has the responsibility for the work environment in our workplaces.
The government shall, of course, take measures to ensure that it is facilitated for employers to take responsibility. It shall also ensure that measures are taken against those employers who do not take their responsibility. The authority that has the greatest responsibility for this is Arbetsmiljöverket.
Here, the Swedish Work Environment Authority has a regulatory update that entered into force on January 1 this year. It is a regulatory update that does not involve new rules but a new structure. Its purpose is to make it easier for employers to find, understand, and use the rules so that they can fulfill their employer responsibility.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority has also introduced more inspections. After the dark year we had with a large number of fatal accidents, the government directed the Swedish Work Environment Authority to conduct more physical and unannounced inspections.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority has also, during 2024, focused its activities specifically on workplaces and industries where there are employees aged 18-24 in order to be able to identify the specific risks within those industries.
When it comes to that work, we will, of course, carefully monitor what effect our measures have. I can state that we had a less dark year last year in any case. Then we had 44 people who died at work, as opposed to 63 the year before.
44 people are of course still far too many. No one should die at work. But I hope and believe that the measures the government is taking have an effect and that they will continue to have an effect moving forward.
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for your contribution here!
It is very positive that the government is planning for a new work environment strategy. But it is the content of such a strategy that is important.
I wonder what one wants and plans for in the future. That is what my questions are about. What measures do you see a need to implement to improve the working environment in Swedish workplaces? Ensure that more people can manage to work until retirement and get a good start in working life!
Not least, I wonder if there are plans for measures that strengthen young people's knowledge of the working life. It is positive that the Minister understands that it is important for young people to be prepared for how the working life functions before they get their first job. But that is not the case today, and the small amount of instruction they received in upper secondary school, the government has removed. My colleague Niklas Sigvardsson, who is knowledgeable about the upper secondary school's subject plans, will explain what it looks like.
It is contradictory that the minister says that work environment awareness among young people is important, both before they get a job and while they are at a workplace, while at the same time the government does nothing about the problems.
I mean that instead, the situation has been worsened by the removal of labor market knowledge from the curriculum for upper secondary school. I do not claim that the education that exists and has existed has been sufficient to give young people a comprehensive picture of working life. But instead of improving labor market knowledge, the government simply chooses to blur it and make it more difficult for teachers to prioritize issues regarding working life and the labor market and young people's rights and obligations in the labor market.
What I think should have been done in connection with this is to consider how it can be done in other ways. If it is now too crowded to be able to include labor market knowledge in social studies in upper secondary school – how do we then ensure in other ways that young people have opportunities to take advantage of their own rights when they enter the working life? Does the minister have a plan for how to better prepare young people for the working life?
Paulina Brandberg should, given that she is the minister responsible for labor law and the work environment, have reacted when the government was to decide on the proposal regarding new subject plans. I wonder how she reacted. Did she have any objections?
The Minister also emphasizes the employers' responsibility. It is entirely correct that the employer has a responsibility to prevent injuries and ill health in the workplace. But both I and the Minister know that it is far from all employers who take their responsibility. Even if one facilitates for the employers to understand the regulatory framework, I am convinced that we need more measures to ensure that they truly take their responsibility. Are there any such proposals that the government could consider moving forward with? I am speaking of proposals that strengthen the motivation of the employers to take their work environment responsibility and prepare young people and give them a good introduction to the labor market.
The question remains as said: How does the government intend to ensure that more young people learn more about working life before they enter the labor market? Or does the minister mean that the government has no responsibility for young people's knowledge of working life and that they receive this knowledge before they enter working life?
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
The Minister claims that work life and knowledge of the labor market are not disappearing from the curricula. I will now compare the wording for those of you listening to the debate.
Today, teachers shall plan and conduct teaching that covers the following: the labor market, labor law and the work environment, the parties in the labor market and their various roles and significance for social development, and the impact of digitalization on the labor market. That is what is stated today in the curriculum plans that teachers are currently conducting teaching according to.
But from the autumn semester 2025, that is in the autumn, they shall instead work according to the following descriptions: They shall plan and conduct teaching for resource use, growth, business cycles and economic policy, for example regarding issues of welfare, basic price formation, supply, entrepreneurship, working life, sustainability, equality and gender equality.
I acknowledge that the word work life is included, but it stands among an extremely large number of other points. This means that when teachers are to prioritize among all this content and among everything else that is in the curricula, the word work life will most likely disappear.
That is why I and we within the Social Democrats continue to assert that the government is making a reprioritization and removing important labor market skills, work life skills, and work environment skills from the upper secondary education.
This is about the preventive work, which the minister touched upon in his interpellation answer. How do we prevent a poor working environment and ensure that the knowledge about a good working environment is there? It is my firm conviction that the school means very much when it comes to this. The minister is welcome to continue talking about the knowledge level among the employees, because right now it is at an extremely low general level.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! We are in complete agreement that the employers have a great responsibility. They have a great responsibility for very much, and also for this. But we also believe that this is a shared responsibility. We are keen that young people should be equipped to enter the labor market and know what their working lives will look like. Therefore, this needs to be a shared responsibility.
We believe that the government fails to prioritize this knowledge and removes it from school. This means that young people are weakened in their knowledge of what rights and obligations they have when they enter the working life. Employers are therefore placed in a much tougher position when it comes to informing. What many employers do when someone enters the working life is to, at best, give a short introduction about the risks at the physical workplace. It is a general introduction, where the employer speaks about what the employee should keep in mind when learning the profession.
It does not mean that one knows what to do if the employer is the one exposing the employee to sexual harassment, or if there is sufficient knowledge to know which risk and consequence analysis one is required to perform in order to be able to carry out one's work.
These are skills that take a long time to acquire. It does not happen in an hour here or there. We consider this to be a problem. The Minister speaks several times about analyzing and finding out. I think it is obvious: We see what reality looks like. This is not good enough. Concrete proposals are needed that strengthen young people in their working lives.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! It is still claimed that the government has removed the subject of work environment knowledge from school. If that had been the case, I can interpret it in no other way than that the interpellor and the members in the debate are directing a rather strong criticism toward LO and the other referral bodies that I previously mentioned. They have not come forward with any objections to the change in the school's curriculum. I still maintain that if it had been as the members here portray it, there would have come rather strong objections from these referral bodies, but that has not happened.
The government thinks it is very important that young people take the right knowledge with them into working life. We shall have a working life where we ensure that employers take their responsibility and see to it that both young and old in working life have a good working environment and that we get a sustainable working life.
The inspection activity that I previously told you about, where Arbetsmiljöverket has directed a specific supervisory activity towards industries where we see many young workers, is part of the work environment strategy and the sub-goal A sustainable working life. It is about introducing targeted inspections for young people in the working life.
The government has also allocated large funds in the budget to Arbetsmiljöverket so that they can sharpen their inspection activities and direct inspections towards precisely those operations where we see that the risks are greatest.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority, as is well known, cannot inspect all workplaces in Sweden; it is not feasible. Therefore, it is of course important that this activity is sharpened so that we detect risks where the risks are greatest.
Madam Speaker! We must also remember that many young workers are in industries that are very vulnerable to labor market crime, and therefore the work that the government undertakes to address that problem is also of decisive importance. Here, among other things, is the Delegation against labor market crime, which has received an expanded mandate to analyze labor market criminal schemes within the sectors of construction, restaurant, transport, personal care, cleaning, and certain parts of the green industries – industries where we see a large number of young workers.
I mean that the measure that the government has taken regarding this is of crucial importance precisely to strengthen the security for young workers, and I look forward to taking part in the delegation's report on February 28 this year.
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Madam Speaker! As the Minister hears, we Social Democrats believe that more measures are needed to strengthen the conditions for young people in the labor market.
I mentioned in my first post that I feel the minister is somewhat forgetting the parties. When the authority cannot inspect all workplaces, the parties in the labor market, not least the trade unions and their safety representatives, play a decisive role in ensuring that working conditions, laws, and agreements are actually followed.
I want to thank you for the debate and the opportunity to highlight the situation of young people in the labor market. As a Social Democrat, I stand firm on the principle that everyone who can work should work. But that does not mean that one should have to accept lousy working conditions or a substandard work environment. This also applies to workplaces that are not run by criminals. It might just be a matter of slightly ignorant or careless employers, or someone who sees an opportunity to exploit people who do not themselves know how to make use of their rights.
Too many young people work today under poor conditions and run a greater risk of being exposed to accidents and work-related injuries. It requires more measures. I think the government needs to rethink and create more and better conditions for Sweden's young people to be able to get decent conditions and a good working environment.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! I want to begin by saying that I naturally share the interpellant's view that we should have a good working environment for everyone in Sweden, even for our young people, and that it is important that they know their rights.
The government is working on a broad front. I have mentioned a number of measures, including at the Swedish Work Environment Authority, as well as the mandate we have given the Delegation against crime in the working life and the work environment strategy that is currently being investigated. The interpellor is also correct that the parties have an important role in this work, and I have personally had conversations with the labor market parties, especially during the past year.
This is a task that needs to be carried out continuously, because of course we need to ensure that things improve compared to how they look today.
I would like to thank the interpellator and the members for their commitment to this important issue. Thank you for a good debate!
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.