Glossary

The glossary contains descriptions of a number of Saco-S's most common words and concepts.

Agreement negotiations
Negotiations on collective agreements between employers' and employees' representatives. They can take place both centrally between Swedish Agency for Government Employers (SAGE) and Saco-S, and locally between the local Saco-S association and the employer.

Agreement without a centrally specified figure
Framework agreements that do not have centrally determined levels for salary changes. This gives the local parties a great deal of room to develop a salary formation that is tailored to the needs of the business and its employees. One such agreement is Saco-S’s salary agreement, RALS 2010-T. Agreements without a centrally specified figure are sometimes called digit less agreements or process agreements.

Central agreements
The central agreements are negotiated by Saco-S and SAGE. The central agreements apply to all government agencies and other government bodies.

Central organization
Both employers and trade unions have central organizations. A central organization has various independent unions as members. The three largest trade union central organizations are TCO, LO and Saco. SAGE is the state's equivalent of a central organization.

Central parties
Representatives of employees or employers representing the members at national level. Saco-S is a central party representing workers within the government.

Chief safety representative
When there are several safety representatives in a protection area, one of them shall be appointed as the chief safety representative. The chief safety representative coordinates the safety representatives' activities and represents them externally. The chief safety representative operates at the entire workplace and must, for example, raise issues with the employer that concern more than one protection area.

Claim
When a collective agreement is about to expire, it is time to negotiate a new agreement. The negotiation begins with the parties meeting and by submiting lists of changes they want the new agreement to contain. These lists of requirements are called claims and form the base of the negotiations.

Collaboration
There are local collaboration agreements that regulate what opportunities employers, employees and staff organizations are given to contribute to the development of an organization and business. The concept of collaboration is fundamentally guided by concepts such as participation, decentralisation, delegation and common interest and presupposes a clear division of responsibilities.

Collective agreements
A written agreement between a trade union organization and employers on the rules that apply in a workplace. A collective agreement can replace or supplement the provisions of the Employment Protection Act (LAS) and can be signed both centrally and locally. Collective agreements regulate, among other things, salaries and other terms of employment. The agreements can be negotiated by having a lot of members in a workplace being members of trade unions.

Doctoral student ladder
Salary ladder for doctoral students. Which salary step you end up on depends on which year in the third-cycle education you are in (years 1, 2, 3) or how far you have come (50 % or 80 %). The doctoral student ladder are usually negotiated once a year and usually apply from the date the salary review applies.

Employee (sometimes shortened AT)
An employee is the person who has an employment contract with another party, who is usually a legal entity. Employment is a way of organising work, where one party, the "employer", buys the other's, the "employee", time for work to be performed.

Employee/staff organization (sometimes shortened ATO)
An organization that aims to protect the interests of affiliated employees in relation to the employer and/or employer organization.

Framework agreement
An agreement signed by Saco-S and SAGE, which is the starting point for how the local parties should work. An example from the Saco-S agreement area is the agreement RALS 2010-T, which regulates salary issues.

Indefinite duration agreements
Agreements that do not end on a specific date but run on until the parties agree on something else.

Individual/separate agreement
As an individual employee, together with your employer, you can make an agreement on individual adjustments to your terms of employment. Saco-S has agreed with SAGE on the possibility of so-called individual/separate agreements. This may involve adjustments of, among other things, working hours, holidays, notice periods and pension provisions.

Joint work
Saco-S and SAGE may agree to work on a specific issue jointly. For example, it may be about supporting local parties in a matter. This type of collaboration is called joint work. Usually, the other trade unions with collective agreements at Uppsala University are also included in the collaboration, for example ST and Seko.

Local agreements
The local agreements are negotiated by the local Saco-S association and the employer at the individual workplace.

Local-local associations/boards
Saco-S at Uppsala University is a local association and the Saco associations/boards found at, for example, departments in the University are referred to as local-local associations or boards.

Local parties
Local parties are the local Saco-S association and the employer in the individual workplace.

Negotiation organization
Members of various unions have many common interests. In order to assert these with stronger force in negotiations with the employer, they join forces in negotiating organizations. Saco-S is a negotiating organization consisting of 21 independent Saco unions. The common denominator for these unions is that they organise government employed academics.

Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who is a specialist in labor law and works at a trade union.

Parties
The parties of the labour market are employers and employees. The relationship between them is regulated in the labour market legislation and the collective agreements.

Protection areas
A protection area can, for example, be geographical or divided by occupational group and cover its collective agreement area in the workplace. At Uppsala University there are 7 protection areas:

1. Ekonomikum, Uppsala University Library, Gamla torget Campus, the Munken Block, Musicum, Gustavianum
2. The Segerstedt Building, English Park Campus, SCAS, Blåsenhus
3. Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC; including the Erken Laboratory and Klubban Biological Station), Geo Centre, Uppsala Botanical Garden (including Linnaeus' Hammarby)
4. Biomedical center (BMC)
5. The Rudbeck Laboratory, Uppsala University Hospital
6. Polacksbacken
7. Campus Gotland

Saco
Saco is a party-political disengaged central union organization, which consists of 21 independent unions that organise academics.

Saco-S
Saco-S negotiates collective agreements for government employed academics. We are an association of 21 independent trade unions within Saco. We are convinced that we will be stronger together. Therefore, we have formed Saco-S in order to better utilize our members' interests in negotiations with employers. Formally, Saco-S is referred to as a negotiating organization.

Safety representative
The safety representative's task is to work for a good working environment and ensure that there is protection against ill health and accidents at work. The safety representative must also monitor the employer to see if they meet the requirements of the Work Environment Act. The safety representative is the employees' representative. In workplaces with at least five employees, safety representatives must be appointed.

Salary dialogue
In advance of salary reviews, each employee must be given the opportunity to have a salary dialogue. It is a dialogue between manager and employee (or manager/manager) with a focus on work performance/output. The conversation must be based on the assessment areas and salary criteria, ie which aspects of the work content have been assessed and the result of the assessment. The salary dialogue serves as a preparation for the local salary negotiations.

Salary-setting discussions
Salary-setting discussions apply to members of the independent Saco unions and who are organisationally placed at the University Administration, the University Library, UU Innovation, the National Centre for Knowledge on Men's Violence Against Women (NCK) and the Internal Audit. Salary-setting discussions mean that new salaries in connection with salary reviews are determined directly in dialogues between the manager and employees, instead of in negotiations between the employer and the employee organization. Salary-setting discussions thus mean that it is the employee and the manager, the two people who have the best knowledge of the employee's work performance, who take responsibility for agreeing on a new salary. The dialogue between manager and employee focuses on the employee's tasks, responsibilities and work performance and ends with the manager and employee agreeing on a new salary.

Seko
Seko stands for the Swedish Service and Communications Union and is a trade union within LO (The Swedish Trade Union Confederation). Seko is one of three employee organizations within the government body.

ST/OFR
Unions in the Public Employees Negotiating Council (OFR) are organised in seven confederation areas. ST is the one who has a collective agreement at Uppsala University.

Standard vacation (Swedish: schablonsemester)
Standard vacation means that the vacation automatically starts from the Monday after Midsummer's Day until the year's vacation days end. The vacation pay for the standard vacation is paid with the October salary. The following have standard vacation: professors, senior lecturers/associate professors, lecturers, associate senior lecturers, assistants professors (Swedish: forskar assistenter), researchers, postdoctoral positions, doctoral students (including assistants with doctoral duties) and teaching assistants (Swedish: amanuenser).

Swedish Agency for Government Employers (SAGE)
SAGE is a government agency, which is the employers' organization for state employers. SAGE represents 240 government sectors, business enterprises and other employers related to the government activities. SAGE is Saco-S's counterparty in the central negotiations.

Time-limited agreements
Agreements that terminates a certain date unless the parties actively extend it.

Trade union
A trade union is an organisation where workers come together to jointly pursue their interests towards the employer. It is in the trade unions the members are. As an employee, you become part of Saco-S by being a member of one of the independent unions that are part of Saco-S.