Response to interpellation 2025/26:138 on measures against unhealthy workload
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns measures against unhealthy workloads. L argues that no one should be harmed or become ill from their work and that the employer is responsible for a good working environment through systematic work environment management 1. L emphasizes that the government takes stress very seriously, follows a work environment strategy, and has tasked Arbetsmiljöverket to develop a risk-based supervision with increased funding 2 3. L reminds of the existing work environment strategy, the reinforcement of the administrative grant for more supervision, and that a new work environment strategy for 2026–2030 is being prepared 4. S argues that stress is a structural problem due to cuts and streamlining 5. S wants to introduce sanction fees for employers who do not follow regulations 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! Johanna Haraldsson has asked me how I and the government intend to act to reduce the unhealthy workload in Swedish workplaces and what initiatives I intend to take to strengthen preventive occupational health work and ensure that employers live up to their responsibility according to the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulations on organizational and social work environment.
I would like to begin by thanking the member for the question.
No one should have to be harmed or become ill from their work. Working life should not result in people being sidelined prematurely due to physical, social or organizational work environment factors, for example, excessively high workload.
The basis for the work environment legislation is that it is the employer's responsibility to ensure a good and safe work environment through systematic and preventive work environment work. It must be a natural part of the operations for all employers and reach all employees. Safety representatives in the workplaces also have a central role in these matters.
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 began to apply in 2025. The regulations are significant for making visible and addressing problems in the work environment, for example if the workload becomes a problem. A systematic work environment work is an important part of preventing fatal accidents, work-related accidents, and occupational diseases.
According to the government's work environment strategy for 2021–2025 (skr. 2020/21:92), the development of increased stress in working life needs to be broken. Arbetsmiljöverket has been tasked with producing annual action plans to implement the work environment strategy within its area. Furthermore, the government has tasked Arbetsmiljöverket with developing the supervision so that it becomes more accurate and risk-based. In the budget bill for 2025, it was also proposed that Arbetsmiljöverket be allocated 50 million kronor in 2026, 75 million kronor in 2027, and 100 million kronor from – 2028, I believe that is what it should say. I am becoming unsure if it is written incorrectly in the material that has been sent to the Riksdag.
On 10 June 2025, the Inquiry on a good working environment for a changing work life submitted its report A working environment strategy for a changing work life (SOU 2025:73). The inquiry's mandate was to produce a proposal for the government's working environment strategy for the years 2026–2030. The report has been referred and is currently being prepared within the Government Offices.
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! High workload and stress are today one of the most serious problems on the Swedish labor market. Arbetsmiljöverket shows that around 630,000 people work under working conditions that risk their health. Up to 800 people die prematurely every year as a result of unhealthy workload. That makes stress the leading work-related cause of death in Sweden.
Behind the figures are people who every day go home from work with the feeling of not being enough. They are people who are forced to sacrifice rest, family, and sometimes their own health to manage a job that is fundamentally poorly organized.
The problems are increasing with constant cuts, streamlining, and trimmed organizations. Fewer people are expected to do more, faster, and with smaller margins. It is a structural problem in the Swedish labor market.
Mr. Speaker! Employers are responsible for the entire work environment. The regulations are binding. Systematic work environment management is not voluntary. It hasn't been for many years. But we know that the rules are not followed to a sufficient extent and that all too often there are not sufficient consequences for the employer who does not follow the rules.
Mr. Speaker! What is the reason for this? Why is it allowed to continue? Why do the problems continue to increase? Why do the employers not do what they are required to do by law? That is exactly what the Institute for Stress Medicine, ISM, has looked into, on behalf of the Work Environment Authority. They have mapped out which obstacles prevent the workload from being addressed.
According to the mapping, it is due to a lack of resources, a lack of knowledge, and that the problems are not taken seriously. In many organizations, there is also an ambiguity regarding who has the responsibility to take these measures. It is precisely that which prevents employers from addressing the problems.
It is extremely problematic if employers do not have enough knowledge to address the problems. But that knowledge can, for example, be provided by occupational health services. But obviously, that resource is not being used to a sufficient extent.
Mr. Speaker! When it is obvious that many employers are not taking the responsibility they have, the minister must consider what he can do to get them to take their responsibility and to act. Just as the minister says, it is the employer who has the entire responsibility for the working environment. And the goals that the minister refers to in his answer have existed for a long time, but measures are lacking.
That up to 800 people die prematurely due to work-related stress is a failure, not only at individual workplaces but for the entire Swedish labor market and for society as a whole. It is a comprehensive problem that requires political accountability and that the government at least has an idea of what needs to be done.
It is therefore regrettable that the Minister does not seem to have any answer to my questions on how they intend to act to reduce the unhealthy workload in Swedish workplaces. I also want to know what initiatives the Minister intends to take to strengthen preventive work environment efforts and ensure that employers live up to the responsibility they have according to the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulations on organizational and social work environment.
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! The work environment affects growth and employment and is significant for how long people can, are able to, and want to work. That being said, work-related stress is a major work environment problem and something that the government takes most seriously. No one should have to die at work or because of work.
It is, as has been mentioned here, the employers who are responsible for a good working environment. But it is the employers who, together with the employees and their representatives, carry out the daily work on the working environment. The systematic and preventive work on the working environment is the foundation for a good working environment.
The government's level of ambition remains high to meet various challenges in working life. Funds are allocated for a stricter and more efficient supervision against serious work environment risks. In the government's work environment strategy for 2021–2025, A good work environment for the future, it is stated that the development of increased stress in working life needs to be broken and that knowledge of stress-related ill health needs to increase.
Arbetsmiljöverket has been tasked with annually developing action plans to implement the work environment strategy. The action plans shall, among other things, clarify what the authority shall implement to achieve the goals and priorities according to the strategy.
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! It is obvious that employers are unable to prevent the unhealthy workload. Should the Minister, or perhaps someone else at the department, not consider what more the government can do? What can we do politically? What political tools do we have? How can we get the employers to increase knowledge within their organization? How can we get them to use occupational health services more? How do we get them to realize the seriousness of the problems? And how are we to get the employers to take their responsibility?
It is not worthy of a modern labor market that people die prematurely because one fails to organize the work in a reasonable way in Swedish workplaces. We are, as said, in complete agreement that the work is best done at the workplaces, but when it is not done, other measures are needed. There lies a great political responsibility.
Stress and high workload is a problem across the entire labor market, among both workers and white-collar employees. But it is not possible to talk about unhealthy workloads without mentioning the welfare sector. That is where the problems are most extensive. That is where the stress is most palpable. That is where sick leaves are increasing fastest. That is where resources are being eroded the most. It is in healthcare, school, and elderly care that municipalities and regions have been forced to cut back, streamline, and reorganize year after year. It is there that the staff now pay the price.
The government has chosen to make large tax cuts instead of investing in welfare. It is a political choice that has direct consequences for the working environment. It leads to fewer colleagues, a higher pace, and more work tasks that must be completed in a shorter time.
When Arbetsmiljöverket conducted a special inspection within healthcare, three out of four inspected workplaces were required to take measures. A large majority do not meet the requirements of the Work Environment Act. The most common and most serious deficiency is precisely unhealthy workload. It concerns overcrowding, staff shortages, constant overtime, lack of recovery, and managers without actual possibilities to resolve the situation.
In elderly care, we see the same thing: too many care recipients per employee, schedules without margins, minute-by-minute management, and a feeling of not being enough. Stress and physical exhaustion have become commonplace.
Underfunding welfare at a time when needs are increasing is not reasonable. You cannot save on welfare and at the same time claim to safeguard the work environment. It simply does not add up. If the government has the ambition to reduce stress-related illnesses and deaths, I think it should start by providing welfare with sufficient resources so that staffing can be increased.
My question, in addition to the questions I have asked earlier, is whether the government is prepared to provide municipalities and regions with long-term stable economic conditions to actually address the unhealthy workload.
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! Let me begin by agreeing with the member's description that this is a very important issue and that we need to do more.
That is why we have, as we have said, the work environment strategy, which we monitor and which applies until this year.
I also want to highlight the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulatory letter for the current year. In that, the government has tasked the Swedish Work Environment Authority with carrying out development work during the period 2025–2028 for a more accurate and so-called risk-based supervision. They should simply look at the right things and at that which creates ill health and risks. The purpose is, among other things, to be able to follow up and evaluate supervisory efforts in a way that is not possible today. The government simultaneously tasked the authority to specifically report on how the authority works with developing regulations, information, and supervision so that no one dies or is injured as a result of their work.
A third thing I would like to mention regarding this is that we have increased the administrative grant for the Swedish Work Environment Authority. Supervision of the work environment is crucial for a good and safe working environment. Among other things, that is why the Swedish Work Environment Authority has received increased resources for a stricter and more efficient supervision against serious work environment risks. For 2025, as I mentioned, the grants were increased by 50 million kronor. The grant increases successively in the coming years.
Johanna Haraldsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Time and again, the supervision, which the Minister highlights, shows that there are enormous deficiencies in the workplaces. But it somehow gets no hearing from the government. In the strategy, these issues are emphasized, but it has not resulted in concrete measures from the government's side.
One cannot just keep checking and checking without it having any consequences. It sounds like the Minister for Employment does not have any clear idea of what can be done politically to address the problems. We Social Democrats have some proposals. The Minister might be able to join in on some of them.
We need to increase the requirements on employers. When the regulations on organizational and social work environment and the systematic work environment management are not followed, there must be clear and rapid consequences. Therefore, we want to introduce sanction fees for deficiencies regarding precisely those regulations, just as proposed in the investigation that the government has let lie for three years. It should not pay to run your staff into the ground.
Employers must use the occupational health care's expertise in preventive work; that is also a proposal. But then the supply of competence must be secured. It is completely unreasonable that the availability of occupational health care is decreasing today due to problems with the supply of competence. Therefore, the government must take responsibility for the training of occupational health physicians, appoint a responsible authority, and secure the funding.
Municipalities and regions must receive long-term, stable and predictable economic frameworks that make it possible to fulfill their mandate without wearing out the staff. Stop underfunding the welfare, and increase the state grants! Without sufficient staffing, the workload will continue to be unhealthy, regardless of how good the rules or controls are.
Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! Let me mention the fourth point – so one might say – in the work that the government is undertaking. The current work environment strategy, A good work environment for the future, which I mentioned earlier, expires at the end of 2025. Therefore, the government appointed an inquiry with the mandate to propose a new work environment strategy for the coming years. In June 2025, the report A work environment strategy for a changed working life was submitted. It states, among other things, that everyone should be able to, have the strength to, and want to work for an entire working life. And the working life shall contribute to health, development, and well-being. That report has been referred, and we are currently preparing it within the Government Offices.
Let me repeat what I said earlier. It appears somewhat from the member's contribution that the government is not taking this issue seriously or is not doing anything.
I remind of the existing work environment strategy, which is valid until this year. I remind of what we have done in the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulatory letter, so that the Swedish Work Environment Authority can become more accurate in its supervision, among other things. I remind of the strengthening of the administrative grant, which implies opportunities for more supervision. And I remind that we are working on a new work environment strategy for the coming years.
With this, I would like to thank you so very much for a very important discussion.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.