Myths and answers about collective agreements

Johan Mann is head of negotiations at IT&Telecomföretagen. On a daily basis, he and his colleagues provide member companies with personal and professional advice on labor law, work environment, salary, pension issues and everything related to employment, but now he will be answering questions about myths when it comes to collective agreements.

Myth 1: Collective agreements infringe on freedom of choice and privacy

Johan Mann replies:
I do not agree. There are certainly certain rules that specify what the employer and the employees must comply with, and in this respect it means that the freedom of choice in these areas is somewhat reduced. But there are also a lot of rules that are more flexible than the rules that exist in law, such as our employment rules. A large part of collective bargaining agreements is about finding more business-related solutions than what the labor laws offer. Sometimes companies without collective agreements may have the impression that they are therefore not covered by legal rules, which is not the case.

Myth 2: Nowadays, many employers have a better pension scheme than ITP

Johan Mann replies:
That's probably not entirely true. Better in what respect? We often see that the collectively agreed solutions and ITP are "good value for money" because, by virtue of a large number of insured, we have been able to push down fund contributions, for example. Fund contributions have a much bigger impact on the final pension than many people think. Most of the solutions that employers sign outside collective agreements are ITP-like. But there are some issues that we need to discuss in the future, such as: Up to which salary levels it is reasonable to make pension contributions? How to better manage variable salary components? How can we open up the pension agreement to give more opportunity for companies and employees to agree on the distribution between salary and pension?

Myth 3: Collective agreements are only valuable for low-income workers

Johan Mann replies:
No, I don't think so. The rules we have in the IT agreement, for example, usually work very well in the businesses.

Myth 4: Collective agreements prevent employers from paying higher wages

Johan Mann replies:
Not at all. There are no such rules that prevent it. It may be that companies that do not use benefits at all in addition to salary have room to increase salaries more. However, my impression is that it is extremely difficult to run a business where you can attract and recruit employees in this way. However, it is important for our companies, as well as their employees, to be able to explain and understand that there are many benefits in an employment offer and that it is not all about salary levels.

Myth 5: Times are changing. The collective agreement is a thing of the past

Johan Mann replies:

I do not think so. Instead, I hope that we can sign collective agreements that work for our member companies with constructive trade union partners. It is important that we remember that the alternative, if we do not sign collective agreements in large areas, will be that more and more demands will be made for labor law regulations. These regulations are often the result of temporary political majorities and as such they are often short-term and can be changed back and forth, i.e. there are no long-term and stable rules over time. General legal regulations are also often not as adapted as they should be.