Access to Justice in Labor Law – The Key to Social Welfare

Abstract

Many of the social welfare benefits in Sweden are based on employment twice over. First is the government policy that employment itself should be basis for certain social welfare benefits (arbetslinje), including state benefits such as parental leave pay, sick pay, unemployment insurance and pensions. Any state social benefits granted under these state schemes are income-based. Where an eligible income is not present, subsistence levels are in place for most state social welfare benefits. For example, with respect to state parental pay, the individual needs an income of at least SEK 82,100 (2019) over 240 days to receive the higher amount. Then the benefit is 80% of the employee’s eligible income up to the ceiling of SEK 38,750 per month, a maximum benefit of SEK 989 per day. Where the individual does not reach the minimum level of eligible income for parental leave, they are entitled to the subsistence level of SEK 250 per day, which is less than one-fourth that of the maximum amount. In addition, supplemental schemes exist under many of the collective agreements so that the income loss of 20 % is mitigated by these collective plans. The dividing line between subsistence level support and the social welfare protections envisioned by the lawmaker is gainful employment. And to have gainful employment, access to justice must be facilitated in order for individuals to be protected against unlawful employment discrimination. In the Swedish context of employment law, these individualistic rights, access to justice and protections against unlawful employment discrimination are juxtaposed against a labor law model based on corporatism-collectivism and an understanding of justice and law formed by Scandinavian Legal Realism. This paper explores this juxtaposition, first setting out the collective Swedish labor model, and then against this background, examining access to justice issues in the context of employment discrimination.

Keywords: discrimination law, access to justice, Sweden, social welfare, labour law model

JEL Classification: K31