April: News from Ingenjören in English
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Ericsson engineers: Strategic shift or show for the President?
Donald Trump has prohibited companies that wish to do business with the United States from having policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Ericsson is one company that has taken action. In 2023, the company’s annual report mentioned its work for “diversity and inclusion” 12 times. In the 2024 report, it wasn’t mentioned at all.
Ralf Bagner, Head of Press at Ericsson, told the newspaper Dagens Industri that Ericsson hasn’t changed its practices. Instead, he says they reviewed the language in the annual report “to ensure clarity and consistency.”
But Per Norlander, union negotiator for Engineers of Sweden at Ericsson, is not satisfied with that answer.
“This is a topic being discussed among our members, especially those with non-Swedish backgrounds or others who may feel threatened.”
He believes there’s a level of naivety in company leadership.
“If the company thinks it’s enough to polish the language in the annual report to appease the president, they’ve completely underestimated the internal perception among employees.”
He now believes it’s necessary to find out if there’s a larger strategy behind the changes.
“For instance, will the word ‘diversity’ also be banned internally ‘to ensure clarity and consistency’? Is diversity now an outdated concept to be thrown in the trash?”
Here is the entire article in Swedish.
New agreements in place: Salary increases and reduced working hours
Unions and employers in the industry have agreed on a two-year collective agreement with wage increases total 6.4 percent – 3.4 percent this year and 3.0 percent next year.
“You can always wish for more, but overall we believe we’ve reached a good result — one of the highest in the nearly 30-year history of the industrial agreement,” says Ulrika Lindstrand, President of Engineers of Sweden.
She says the unions expect this will lead to real wage increases.
One key issue in this year’s negotiations was also a reduction in working hours.
In this matter, the unions achieved success, and now there is a shortening of work time in all agreement areas within the industry Those who previously did not have a shortening of work time get one day off per year, others get one more day.
The shortening of work time is taken from the pay settlement — 0.5% in 2025 (except for the Tech Alliance agreement, which is split over two years).
Here’s how salary and reduced working hours are distributed in the agreement:
Here is the entire article in Swedish.
IT and telecom receive shortening of work time
From 2026, there will be a one-day shortening of work time for those covered by TechSverige’s IT and Telecom collective agreement.
It affects approximately 7,000 members of Engineers of Sweden, who are employed at companies such as Tietoevry and CGI for the IT agreement, and TeliaCompany, Tele2, and Telenor for the Telecom agreement.
“In the industrial sector, they have a fairly generous reduction in working hours. Now we are taking the first step in our sector. It feels like a matter of fairness — that things should be as equal as possible,” says Thomas Zeidler, Chair of the Academic Association at Telenor Sweden and member of Engineers of Sweden.
Wages – Reduced hours – Pensions
The agreement value for IT and Telecom, like the industrial benchmark, is 3.4% for 2025 and 3.0% for 2026. It is distributed as follows:
- Wages: 3.0% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026
- Contribution to reduced working hours: 0.2% in 2025 and 0.3% in 2026
- Contribution to flexible/part-time pensions: 0.2% in both 2025 and 2026
Here is the entire article in Swedish.
Strike called off: “Wanted to fight, but relieved now”
There will be no strike at Sweco, Tyréns, Kiwa, and Academedia Support. Eight days after the strike notice was issued and less than a week before the strike was set to begin, Engineers of Sweden and Unionen reached new collective agreements with Innovationsföretagen and Utbildningsföretagen within the Almega employer organization.
A one-day reduction in working hours will be introduced starting in 2026. The employer will decide when the time off is scheduled, but it must be done at a group level — for example, an entire workgroup having the day off simultaneously. The time off can be taken as one full day or two half-days.
“It feels great. We’ve long wanted a reduction in working hours in the service sector, like we have in the industrial sector. Many were enthusiastic about the strike and thought it was good that we stood up for ourselves, but I think many, like me, feel relieved that we didn’t have to go all the way to a strike,” says Ola Sundström, Head of Negotiations for the service sector at Engineers of Sweden.
In exchange, night work and more intense work periods will now be permitted.
For the education companies, the value of the agreement is in line with the national benchmark: 6.4 percent over two years. For the innovation companies, the agreement does not specify a set figure. Instead, salary increases will be determined locally based on each company’s performance.
As with other agreements, the reduction in working hours will be financed through part of the available wage space.
Here is the entire article in Swedish.
More to read in English
All articles in Ingenjören that have been translated into English
The guide from Ingenjören in English (magazine from 2024) – About Engineers of Sweden and the Swedish labour market model
Information in English from Engineers of Sweden (including button for Google Translate-version of the entire Engineers of Sweden website)
