figuratively obstacle towards the outsiders which do not benefit from these protective measures. This argumentation might identify an insider-outsider problem. Others argue that insider-outsider problems do not exist in Sweden. One of these is Per Jansson who in the midst of the 1990´s recession concluded that he could not find evidence for this theory. What is clear though is that there is a structural problem that many people in Sweden today are alienated from the labour market, and even more problematic is that the people who are overrepresented are those that are defined as `outsider´ groups by the EU such as immigrants, women, young and old people and low educated ones. The recent actions made to help those that are alienated have not been successful. A reform of the regulation of fixed-term work was however entered into force on 1 July 2007, which has been an important step towards simplifying and clarifying the regulation of fixed-term employment contracts, as well as continuing to maintain a high level of security for the employees on the flexible labour market. This regulation did also create numerous `new´ types of fixed-term contracts, for example temporary substitute for employees above the age of 67 years, and probationary employment. A vast originality of the 2007 reform was the creation of general temporary employment (allmän visstid), where the employer does not need to justify why the appointment should be time-limited rather than indefinitely. This reform is clearly influenced by the ideas of flexicurity due to the fact that it is normalizing the use of atypical job contracts, and moving away from open-ended contract as the norm, which is a goal for flexicurity. However in 5§ LAS it still declares that open-ended contracts shall be the norm, but it does in fact also say so in the EU Fixed-Term Directive (1999/70/EC). It has been criticised by several trade unions such as LO and TCO
figuratively obstacle towards the outsiders which do not benefit from these protective measures. This argumentation might identify an insider-outsider problem. Others argue that insider-outsider problems do not exist in Sweden. One of these is Per Jansson who in the midst of the 1990´s recession concluded that he could not find evidence for this theory. What is clear though is that there is a structural problem that many people in Sweden today are alienated from the labour market, and even more problematic is that the people who are overrepresented are those that are defined as `outsider´ groups by the EU such as immigrants, women, young and old people and low educated ones. The recent actions made to help those that are alienated have not been successful. A reform of the regulation of fixed-term work was however entered into force on 1 July 2007, which has been an important step towards simplifying and clarifying the regulation of fixed-term employment contracts, as well as continuing to maintain a high level of security for the employees on the flexible labour market. This regulation did also create numerous `new´ types of fixed-term contracts, for example temporary substitute for employees above the age of 67 years, and probationary employment. A vast originality of the 2007 reform was the creation of general temporary employment (allmän visstid), where the employer does not need to justify why the appointment should be time-limited rather than indefinitely. This reform is clearly influenced by the ideas of flexicurity due to the fact that it is normalizing the use of atypical job contracts, and moving away from open-ended contract as the norm, which is a goal for flexicurity. However in 5§ LAS it still declares that open-ended contracts shall be the norm, but it does in fact also say so in the EU Fixed-Term Directive (1999/70/EC). It has been criticised by several trade unions such as LO and TCO
5472650.docx