Work-Life Balance and Working Time Policy in Sweden and in the EU

Historically, the working time policy has had a balancing role in the so called “Nordic model” of negotiations between employee and employers representatives. The outcome of these negotiations has, during a dominating part of the 20^th century, been a reduced working time to compensate workers due to social risks of intensified working pace. These working time reforms have established its legitimacy in state law. That solution is not on the political agenda anymore, even though a flexible and intense working life is of current interest and that problem of reconciling work and private life is one of the new social risk factors. The aim is to create an understanding of Swedish national working time regulations in a document study of Swedish working time policy from 1911 and onwards. What arguments for or against a general reduction in working time is presented in official reports, propositions and department publications? Results shows, that working time policy goals have changed, from being anchored in a social discourse to being rooted in an economic one. This changes the position of working time as an important instrument in the socio-political discourse and makes the reduced working time agenda fade in the light of economic goals such as expansion, growth and flexible working time arrangements. The theoretical approach is based on a policy theory where four different levels of political policymaking are discovered. Policy analysis is a way to find out the underlying causes and motives of the actors. The results end up in a discussion about working time policy changes and policy directives from the European Union.