Spotify’s night work controversy could be solved by negotiating with workers

Spotify, the Swedish streaming giant, is under fire for refusing efforts by two unions – Unionen and Engineers of Sweden, both affiliated to UNI – to negotiate a collective agreement that would authorize night work for employees.

During a recent inspection of Spotify’s Stockholm headquarters, the Swedish Work Environment Authority cited the company for unauthorized nightwork, from midnight to 5am. The authority then rejected Spotify’s application for an exception to nightwork rules.

Unionen stepped in, proposing a collective agreement that would regulate emergency work during night shifts while ensuring worker safety and fairness.

However, Spotify rejected this fair, simple solution in favour of pushing for legislative changes, challenging Sweden’s long-standing labour protections. The company also announced it would relocate 250 jobs out of Sweden because of the dispute.

Alexander Häger,  a senior backend engineer at Spotify and member of Engineers of Sweden, along with Jonas Sundberg, club chairman of Spotify Workers Unionen, wrote in Dagens Industri, “Most other companies in Sweden have already chosen a more flexible path – they negotiate with their employees at the workplace, they draw up a collective agreement.

“Instead, time and money have been spent on moving tasks abroad and appealing court decisions. Our view of the company’s response to the desire to sign a collective agreement is that the reaction so far has been irrational rather than confidence-inspiring, especially when you pride yourself on spreading Swedish working conditions internationally.”

UNI and tech worker unions around the world support the Spotify unions who are calling for a collective agreement at the company.

“Spotify would rather erode Sweden’s labour protections than negotiate an agreement that would allow workers to address urgent issues at all hours while being treated fairly,” said Benjamin Parton, Head of UNI’s ICTS sector. “There’s still time for the company to turn things around so its ‘Wrapped’ this year is not marred by these kinds of anti-union tactics.”