Nearly half of the country's 1.2 million companies are run as individual companies, according to Statistics Sweden's company register. During the corona pandemic, the government has delivered several support packages to the companies, but individual traders find it difficult to use the support money.
The support for short-term work for employees cannot be applied to individual companies because they lack employees. In the latest support package, entrepreneurs were offered help with fixed costs but not wage costs.
- It is far from everyone who has fixed costs. So it is no help to very many people, says Rita Saxmark, who started a call for better conditions for individual companies together with colleague Linnéa Sallay.
So far, the call has collected almost 7,000 signatures and major unions that the Theater Association, DIK and Svenska Fotogra- pher have supported.
- The need for a thorough change in the a-cash system has been around for a very long time. With the corona crisis, it was at its forefront, says Rita Saxmark.
- Why should one have to put the company to rest in order to have a cash register? We end up in step 22 where we are prohibited from billing individual assignments and keeping in touch with our customers. How, then, can we survive a crisis like this? This at the same time as those with one-man or few-man limited companies can use the crisis package, says Linnéa Sallay.
"Poorly adapted regulations"They believe that the rules for unemployment benefits in Sweden are poorly adapted to today's labor market.
- Current legislation was introduced during a time when many people worked their entire lives at the same company. That's not how it looks today, says Linnéa Sallay.
Business Minister Ibrahim Baylan is responsible for the government's support package for companies during the corona crisis. He writes to SVT:
“It is a very serious situation that Sweden is in because of the corona virus and we know that there are many companies that are now hit hard. The Government is working intensively to mitigate the effects of the corona pandemic (...) To date, the Government has presented measures of SEK 170 billion. We do not exclude further action. "
The responsibility for the design of the unemployment insurance fund lies with Labor Minister Eva Nordmark, who answers SVT that:
“It is important that self-employed people, combinators and other groups are covered by our security systems. Today's unemployment insurance is not fully adapted to the conditions in today's labor market with a variety of employment and contract types. Therefore, in 2018, the government appointed an inquiry with the aim of designing a new and more efficient unemployment insurance based on income. "