Spotify, the Swedish streaming giant, is under fire for refusing efforts by two unions – Unionen and Engineers of Sweden<\/span>, both affiliated to UNI – to negotiate a collective agreement that would authorize night work for employees.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
During a recent inspection of Spotify\u2019s Stockholm headquarters, the Swedish Work Environment Authority cited the company for unauthorized nightwork, from midnight to 5am. The authority then rejected Spotify\u2019s application for an exception to nightwork rules.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Unionen stepped in, proposing a collective agreement that would regulate emergency work during night shifts while ensuring worker safety and fairness.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
However, Spotify rejected this fair, simple solution in favour of pushing for legislative changes, challenging Sweden\u2019s long-standing labour protections. The company also announced that 250 jobs in Sweden would be affected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Alexander H\u00e4ger,<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 a senior backend engineer at Spotify and member of Engineers of Sweden<\/span><\/b>, along with\u00a0Jonas Sundberg,<\/b>\u00a0club chairman of Spotify Workers Unionen<\/b>, wrote in\u00a0Dagens Industri<\/i><\/a>, \u201c<\/i>Most other companies in Sweden have already chosen a more flexible path \u2013 they negotiate with their employees at the workplace, they draw up a collective agreement.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
\u201cSpotify would rather erode Sweden\u2019s labour protections than negotiate an agreement that would allow workers to address urgent issues at all hours while being treated fairly,\u201d said\u00a0Benjamin Parton, Head of UNI\u2019s ICTS<\/a><\/b> sector. \u201cThere\u2019s still time for the company to turn things around so its ‘Wrapped’\u00a0this year is not marred by these kinds of anti-union tactics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"