The Swedish staffing association (Bemanningsfӧretagen) has lodged a complaint with the European Commission, claiming that the Government has failed to fulfil its obligations concerning freedom of movement for workers. 

The association has joined forces with staffing companies Adecco Sweden and healthcare recruiter Dedicare to lodge this complaint which centres on the so-called Quarantine Rule, established in 1993. It prohibits employees from resigning from their jobs and being re-recruited by the same employers through a staffing agency within six months. The staffing association claims that this is in violation of the EU’s Temporary Agency Work Directive.

In a letter to the European Commission, Bemanningsfӧretagen’s Managing Director, Henrik Bӓckstrӧm, wrote: “The member companies of the Swedish Staffing Agencies are therefore in their day-to-day business faced with numerous unjustified and disproportionate prohibitions and restrictions on the use of temporary agency work.”

The Quarantine Rule was formally abolished by Parliament in January 2013. But the complainants argue that local authorities are continuing to implement the rule, principally in the healthcare sector.

“Despite the positive contribution of agency work in creating jobs, increasing labour market participation and facilitating transitions in the labour market, Swedish public authorities are defying the express will of both the Swedish and the European legislatures,” said Mr Bӓckstrӧm.