With few exceptions, it is mandatory to be a police officer in order to be a member of our organization. The Police Ordinance, which is decreed by the Swedish Government, governs who may be a police officer in Sweden.
Our operation
The Swedish Police Union can be found at all workplaces in Sweden that employ police officers. We can also be found at Swedish higher education institutions that provide police training programs.
We create excellent work conditions for members, for example through negotiations with the Police Authority on wages and other work conditions. At an overarching level, we work for all police officers as a collective, regardless of whether or not they are members of our organization. At an individual level, we carry out the same type of work for the police officers who are our members.
We also work with opinion-shaping and influencing decision-makers at all levels, both to improve work conditions for our members and to enhance the status of the profession.
The Swedish model
The Swedish model – the party model – is based on union and employer organizations coming to a joint agreement on wages, working time and other conditions, without the Swedish Parliament needing to legislate minimum wages, for example, which is common in other countries.
According to the Swedish model, wages, working time and other work conditions are not primarily regulated through legislation, but through agreements between the employee and the union, which we call collective agreements in Sweden. For some negotiations on wages and conditions, we collaborate with other unions that also organize public employees.
Partnerships in Sweden and internationally
The Swedish Police Union is a member of the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO). The Swedish Police Union is represented internationally in the Nordic Police Federation (Nordiska Polisförbundet) and EuroCOP.