The Swedish Workplace Programme - What happens when labour-market actors work together to promote workplace co-operation?

The SWP makes the business case for co-operation through the establishment of structured workplace committees (or 'programmes'). The process gives everyone a voice in the workplace and ensures policies align with local realities.

SKF Latin Trade is a company based in Colombia with presence in several other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company is active in diverse sectors, including mining, oil and gas, and metal, where sustainability is an imperative. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced SKF Latin Trade to adjust to new ways of working while meeting market demand and handling supply-chain disruption. The company decided to join the SWP programme to address the pandemic-related challenges through the enhancing of workplace co-operation.

The first crucial step of the SWP intervention model involves ensuring the local stakeholders’ buy-in. As such, the SWP facilitated a comprehensive baseline assessment that involved conversations, interviews and surveys with managers and workers. The assessment offered a different strategic view of the company and provided suggestions on where to prioritise efforts in the future.

Secondly, a workplace committee with representatives from management and employees was established through a transparent, democratic election process. Based on the assessment feedback, the workplace committee prioritised improvement in gender equality, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability.

The SWP delivered a training programme to build the capacity of committee members in organisational change and equip management and workers with the skills to navigate the change process. They also launched a Women Empowerment Programme, which included a review of policies that hinder equality at the company level.

• The SWP process of dialogue and consultation enabled management and workers to identify the company’s key sustainability challenges and design a plan to address them.
• SKF Latin Trade is now sharing this approach in their value chain through a platform that organises regular talks on guidelines and good practices, as well as through the rollout of a training programme.
• These measures and experiences have fostered an enabling environment for social dialogue as workers are now fully engaged where they weren’t before.
• Effective workplace co-operation practices have changed how policies are adopted and have contributed to mainstreaming human rights issues into all company initiatives.

Shop stewards are a trade union’s representatives in the workplace and act as a bridge between workers and the union. Most shop stewards surveyed during consultative meetings held by SWP in Kenya and South Africa indicated that union representatives were struggling to meaningfully engage with management due to lack of confidence and information. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the demand among shop stewards for soft skills such as relationship building and conflict resolution.

To fill this gap, the SWP and its Swedish company and trade union partners, together with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metal Workers (AUKMW), shaped UP! – a training initiative focusing on the upskilling of shop stewards in the metal and engineering sectors.

Union representatives from 27 companies in Kenya and South Africa were equipped through UP! and empowered with skills to engage with management in a new and effective way. 

• Many shop stewards highlighted that, thanks to the training, they felt more empowered in their professional relations and on a personal level.
• The Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKA) noted that UP! has helped establish good approaches for conducting dialogue between workplace actors and for solving grievance issues early.
• Shop stewards listed several cases where they had secured results in dialogue with management, averted crises or found solutions based on the skills obtained during the training.
• The upskilling intervention successfully enhanced the unions’ value proposition, leading to an increase in membership in the AUKMW, as trained shop stewards used their newfound skills to recruit members. 
• Furthermore, the training acted as a driver for the AUKMW to organise bipartite and tripartite conferences with the Kenyan Ministry of Labour, the FKA and the ILO.