“The investment is made to clearly prioritize the personnel groups that we initially need to strengthen due to the serious global situation, the high pressure on the units and the preparedness that must be maintained,” says Fredrik Ståhlberg at the Swedish Armed Forces website.
Before the fall, about 30 fighter pilots went on leave after dissatisfaction with, among other things, their salaries.
In recent years, the Swedish Armed Forces have had approximately 15–20 percent fewer continuously employed soldiers, sailors and group commanders than is considered necessary. Although it was not difficult to recruit, there have been problems with getting the employees to stay.
“However, this shows that the Armed Forces now seem to realize that a key to recruiting and, above all, retaining personnel is to pay a fair salary for the work that the personnel perform,” says the Officers’ Association’s head of negotiations, Susanne Hultgren, in a comment on the association’s website.