The Ghent system in transition: unions’ evolving role in Sweden’s multi-pillar unemployment benefit system

Jayeon Lindellee and Tomas Berglund
Additional contact information
Jayeon Lindellee: Lund University, Sweden
Tomas Berglund: University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2022, vol. 28, issue 2, 211-227

Abstract: This article discusses the multi-faceted and changing role played by trade unions in providing unemployment benefits in Sweden, a country using the so-called Ghent system. As an important institutional feature explaining the high rate of unionisation in the Nordics, the system has been much debated. This article provides a comprehensive account of the retrenchment of the state unemployment benefit system (UBS) and the development of occupational and private UBS pillars providing complementary protection. It also introduces an ongoing reform discussion where the social partners are proposed to govern the unemployment insurance system via collective agreements, while retaining the union-linked insurance funds. The core institutional feature of the Ghent system – voluntary membership of a union-linked insurance fund – is turning out to be highly resilient despite frequent attempts to weaken the union power stemming from it. However, the system’s role in providing unemployment protection has changed due to its development into a multi-pillar structure, meaning that its future prospects are uncertain.

Keywords: Ghent system; multi-pillarisation; Sweden; trade unions; unemployment benefit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10242589221080885 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:28:y:2022:i:2:p:211-227

DOI: 10.1177/10242589221080885

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().