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labour contracts and trade (collective) agreements. 657
a matter of course, only in the same manner as the subordinate official to his
superior. The employer is no longer looked upon as a master by the workman,
nor does the workman regard himself as a servant. Out of working hours the
workman is under no definite personal obligations towards his employer, and when
work is over, there is nothing to prevent them meeting as equals. On the
other hand, the hired family domestic, and to some extent the agricultural
labourer, signs himself over to devote his personal strength and skill to the
performance of work which cannot be so precisely defined in the above-stated
respects, at any rate not in the matter of hours. In consequence of that
engagement, and still more so when, as is frequently the case, the remuneration
consists to a* great extent of board and lodging, the relation of superior and
subordinate becomes a permanent relation, which is indeed the characteristic
element of the mutual position of master and servant.
The Liberty of Trade Ordinance of 1864, which definitely swept away the trade
restrictions of the Guilds, prescribes that the contract of service shall be drawn
up in the presence of witnesses and precisely define the conditions of labour;
and among those conditions the period of service, which shall not exceed three
years. By a contract of this nature the employer secures a legal but limited
power over his assistants and workmen, unless otherwise stipulated in the
contract. However, this form of contract, which is technically known as
arbetslego-avtal, has become obsolete in Sweden, and has not been heard of for years,
except in a few extremely rare cases. The need of modern legislation on the
subject is keenly felt, and investigations preparatory to such legislation have been
going on for years. Proposals in this direction which were introduced into the
Riksdag in 1910, and 1911 were thrown out.
The conditions of employment in industry, the crafts, and trade are governed,
in default of legislation directly applicable to the subject, by use and wont,
guided by general principles of equity; and labour contracts, especially in
industry, are in a great measure standardized by collective agreements (vide infra).
In agriculture and its accessory industries there are still considerable survivals
of that form of labour contract which is regulated by the Statute of 1833 (see
above). This form of agreement is also rather frequently adopted in engaging
domestic servants. These Service Contracts (tjänstehjonsavtal) are obviously in
many respects antiquated. Many of the enactments of the ancient Statute derive
their historical explanation from a form of compulsory service formerly in
existence, based on principles of public law and dictated by various
considerations of public benefit. The problem which the legislators have to solve
is to provide a modern law with regard to private contracts of service, without
suppressing the ancient patriarchal and ethical relations subsisting between
master and servant; for, even if those relations have long become impracticable
and undesirable for by far the greater part of the labour market, it is both
practicable and desirable to retain them for certain kinds of agricultural labour,
or the like, and in the case of domestic servants. Proposals on this line which
were drafted in 1900 have not been carried into effect.
As to sailors see special article, Part II.
As to workmen and employees in the public service see the article Labour
conditions and Yorkmen’s Wages, above.
Trade (collective) Agreements. Ever since trade-unionism, the
product of the industrial revolution, made its ingress into Sweden in the
eighties of the last century, the trade unions have been endeavouring to
regulate the conditions of employment for their members by means of
collective bargains. However, the first instance of collective bargaining in
42—133179. Sweden. I.
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