Ministry of Employment

The Government has decided to refer proposals to the Council on Legislation for amendments to the Aliens Act. The amendments are being proposed to ensure that Swedish migration policy is sustainable in the long term and provides a humane, legally secure and effective regulatory framework that is not materially different from migration policies in other EU Member States.

The Government has today decided that the new agency proposed by the Government, the human rights institute, is to be located in Lund. An Inquiry Chair has been instructed to prepare for and carry out the formation of the new agency. The agency is to be established on 1 January 2022.

In this Communication, the Government presents its work environment strategy for 2021–2025. The work environment strategy sets out the Government’s long-term policy focus in this area over the next five years.

On 15–19 March, Minister for Gender Equality Märta Stenevi will take part digitally in the sixty-fifth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW65). The priority theme is women’s opportunities for participation and decision-making in public life, and the elimination of violence against women.

On 8 March, International Women’s Day, a stakeholder meeting was held at which Minister for Gender Equality Märta Stenevi and Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde met with more than 40 civil society organisations to get input for Sweden’s engagement in a global action coalition on economic gender equality.

Sweden has the first feminist Government in the world. Gender equality is central to the Government’s priorities – in decision-making and resource allocation. The Government’s gender equality work is based on six objectives. It addresses power and influence, gender equality in economy and education, and the equal distribution of unpaid housework and provision of care. It is also about gender equality in health and ending men’s violence against women. In brief, it is about gender equality in all facets of life and society.

The work environment at every workplace has a major bearing on people’s living conditions and is key to a well-functioning and vigorous labour market. The Government has adopted a new work environment strategy with a continued high level of ambition for work environment policy.

The Government has adopted several measures against racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime. Several of the measures are being carried out within the context of the national plan against racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime, which the Government adopted in 2016. The plan takes an integrated approach and comprises strategies and measures to prevent and combat racism and hate crime through improved coordination and monitoring, more education and research, increased support to and deepened dialogue with civil society, strengthened preventive measures online and a more active justice system.

On 22 February, Minister for Gender Equality and Housing Märta Stenevi took part in an informal video conference between EU employment, social affairs and gender equality ministers. Ms Stenevi participated in a discussion on the link between gender equality and the EU’s post-pandemic recovery.

At Sweden’s initiative, several EU Member States gathered to discuss the Minimum Wage Directive. The meeting resulted in several Member States joining together to send a letter to the EU Presidency. In the letter, the ministers object to the way the issue has been handled, and suggest that a legally binding directive is not the right approach.