Criticism is growing against the new EU directive on 24-hour rest, which affects thousands of employees in various industries. In healthcare, roughly 20,000 have signed a protest list – hoping to stop the rules. – If this goes through, it will mean disaster for both our employees and for the users we care for. They need continuity and not a lot of personnel changes, says Lena Berggren, assistant nurse. The healthcare workers who signed the protest demand that the law be stopped, otherwise many believe that there is a risk of mass redundancies. One of those protesting is assistant nurse Lena Berggren, who works at an LSS residence in Nälden in Jämtland. Lena Berggren’s work shifts are usually a whole day long, as she starts in the morning and works until morning the following day. A form of schedule which, according to her, works very well. But it will be different from October when all employees in care and other activities in regions and municipalities must have 11 hours of continuous 24-hour rest, every day. For Lena Berggren, this means that instead of working around the clock, she gets shorter, but more work shifts. – I don’t understand why they want to destroy something that works as well as it is today. Sure, we have long 24-hour shifts, but we also have a lot of time off where we have time to recover and also have a functioning social life outside of work, she says. “Will be more expensive for the municipalities” The stricter directives regarding the 24-hour rest period, which come from the EU, are about protecting the health and working environment of employees, claims Sweden’s municipalities and regions, SKR. Several employees in care and social care agree that it can be better for the recovery. But according to several of the country’s municipalities, the new working time rules will cause major problems. – This will be more expensive for the municipalities, for us it is an increased cost of just over 30 million. Which is a lot of money in the health care budget. But above all, it will be difficult, no, by the way, impossible to recruit the extra staff that we will have to do if this goes through, says Robert Brandt, head of health care in Östersund municipality. In the past, among others, several thousand firefighters have gone out and criticized the proposed changes and now a protest list has been started online where around 20,000 people, many employees in care and welfare, have signed to keep the option of working 24-hour shifts. Right now, negotiations are underway between SKR and the trade unions concerned.
t4-general