Legislate right to full-time employment: Left Party

The Swedish Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) wants to abolish several reforms adopted by the governing Alliance parties, according to a new report.

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The Left Party wants to abolish the childcare allowance (vårdnadsbidrag), the equality bonus (jämställdhetsbonus), and tax deductions for household services. The childcare allowance is currently paid to parents who remain out of the labour market to care for their children, while the equality bonus is paid to couples who equally split parental leave between both the mother and father.

The Left Party would also consider legislation to ensure the right to full-time employment.

More women than men work part-time, as well as take up fixed-term employment. The Left Party therefore believes that women would benefit if more people had the right to work full-time as well as had access to permanent employment.

The Left Party would achieve this by making employers fees for fixed-term (visstidsanställning) employment higher than those for permanent employment (tillsvidareanställning).

The party is also prepared to enact legislation to ensure the right to full-time employment if the social partners are unable to reach agreement, according to Left Party members Ulla Andersson and Josefin Brink in a report outlining the party’s gender equality policies.

There are too few men who take advantage of paternity leave, Andersson and Brink said. Parental leave should therefore be individual, so that each parent may take half, which may not be transferred to the other parent.

The Left Party would also seek to re-establish the position of a dedicated gender equality minister, as well as abolish the childcare allowance, which is described as a “direct anti-feminist reform that encourages women to stay at home and be supported by their husbands.”

In addition, the party would abolish tax deductions for home services, the so-called “maid deduction” (pigavdraget).