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government averaged US$2.42 in 1970, with general increases for the year averaging 4%, including 2.1% to compensate for a shortened work week. The wage drift in 1970 was about 0.5%.
The gross income of white-collar employees in private industry averaged US$580 per month in 1970, up 8% over 1969. Salaries in manufacturing and commerce, however, were up 9% in 1970, while those in banking and insurance increased by 11%. Employers and government had to pay another 31% of direct wage costs in 1970 for white-collar benefits and social services, including the legislated pension plan, 7.7%; health insurance, 2.9%; accident insurance, 0.4%; union negotiated supplemental pension plan, 8.6%; group life insurance, 0.3%; severance pay fund, 0.2%; vacation pay, 8.2%; sick pay, 0.6%; and payroll tax, 2%. In the public sector white-collar wage rates for national government employees ranged from $244 to $2,094 per month, with the average being $528. The net increase in 1970 was 5.3%, of which 0.9% was wage drift.
Legislation governing hours of work applies only to employees whose working time is not covered by collective agreements—about one-third of the total labor force. The work week for industrial workers is 42½ hours, with some exceptions, such as shift workers who work 42 hours a week and underground workers in mining operations who work 40 hours per week. White-collar workers have a 40-hour week, and additional hours are regarded as overtime. The law provides for annual paid vacations of 4 weeks.
In Sweden, as in other Scandinavian countries, the constant amelioration of working conditions receives high official priority. The Workers' Protective Act of 1949 as amended in 1963, which covers all employment except household work and military service, requires that employers provide adequate air space, lighting, and temperature (Figure 14), as well as clean restrooms and eating facilities. It also establishes standards for safety devices to prevent accidents and for protective clothing and other equipment to lessen the chance of occupational diseases. Between 1957 and 1967 the work injury rate in industry decreased from 24.6 to 24.1 per million hours worked, while the total number of hours worked increased from 5.2 million to 5.6 million. Of the total number of injuries in 1967, 98% resulted in temporary incapacity, 1.7% in disability, and 0.3% in death.
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FIGURE 14. Workers in plant of Ericsson Telephone Corporation, manufacturer of telephone, radar, and electronic equipment (U/OU) (photo)
4. Organization of labor
Sweden's labor force is one of the most highly organized in Western Europe and, therefore, in the free world, with close to 80% of all wage earners belonging to trade unions. Sweden's labor unions grew in size by about 67,000 during 1970, while the average labor force growth was 56,000. The percentage of unionization among blue-collar workers is about 90%, while about 70% of the white-collar workers are organized. Reflecting the rationalization of industry and the emergence of white-collar services as a larger labor user than industry, however, the principal white-collar union confederation few by almost 40,000 in 1970, nearly double the growth of the blue-collar one.
The first unions in Sweden were organized in the 1880's and were recognized by the end of the decade as legitimate groups for the purpose of bargaining. In 1898 several significant unions came together to form the Federation of Trade Unions (LO), which dominates the labor movement. During 1970 its membership grew by 20,400, to a. total of 1.68 million, Thus, about every fifth Swede is a member of the LO, and half of all families in the country have ties with it. About 480,500 women belonged to the LO in 1970, and its membership of persons under the age of 30 totaled 415,000. While the LO is principally a blue-collar union, having organized about 90% of the industrial workers, an estimated 250,000 low-level white-collar workers are also members.
The number of affiliated unions comprising the LO—29 in 1970—has been gradually reduced over the years by consolidation, as authority has become increasingly centralized in the LO, and as the trend toward labor organization along industrial rather than craft lines has become more pronounced. The affiliated unions are still theoretically sovereign, free
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