Swedish Firefighters' Association has started a petition among the country's 5,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time firefighters. The European Commission has questioned whether the collective agreement is compatible with the EU Working Time Directive in certain parts of Sweden.
The directive means that employees must have eleven hours of rest in a day. So far, more than 2,000 firefighters have signed the petition demanding exemptions for emergency services. The new rules will lead to a deterioration in working conditions with the risk of mass redundancies.