Sweden United

We will sub-title this on Twitter as “Do you have unemployment insurance in Sweden” as it seems many immigrants do not have proper or adequate coverage. It can be quite devastating to lose a job and end up at ALFA kassan collecting only a few thousand SEK a month.

1. The first step is to join a union. There are two primary union umbrella organizations in Sweden. You will not join these umbrella organizations directly rather they serve as a resource to find the union thats right for you.

A. LO ~ Primary trade industry jobs (truck drivers, engine builders, waiters, etc).

The following link (in Swedish) shows the 14 member Unions that are working with LO. It is one of these unions you will join.

http://www.lo.se/home/lo/home.nsf/unidView/547CDE32A3855B52C1256E4B0035BE41

B. TCO ~ Primarily for professionals, i.e., teachers, journalists, auditors.

However, there are some areas where lines blur, for example, customer service is part of the TCO.

The following link (in Swedish) shows the 16 affiliated Union organizations.

http://www.facketforandras.nu/Varfor-facket/Hitta-ditt-forbund/

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Most of the unions have an unemployment agency associated with them and you want to join both. Although, it is not required.

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Private insurance.

www.if.se
www.forenadeliv.se

Your union will often offer unemployment insurance and they are generally the best prices around. Unions will often offer many other types of insurance and in that case you will definitely want to shop around as there are big price differences in life and disability insurance costs from company to company.

For additional information please see “How to join a Union” in Sweden.

http://swedenunited.tumblr.com/post/368745644/how-to-join-a-union-in-sweden

We would like to thank Maria at Unionen for all of her help!

If you have any questions regarding this article please either email us or call between the hours of 0800 and 1600 Monday to Friday.

Email : info@swedenunited.org
Telephone  +46 (0) 40 693 63 73