Behind the pay gap between civilian employees and police officers is largely money earmarked by the government to make the police profession more attractive. According to information provided to SVT, the initiative means a salary increase of SEK 1,600 a month for police-trained investigators - in addition to the annual salary review.
However, civilian investigators are not allowed to receive the money. In addition, the group is represented by another trade union, which in the usual wage negotiations has led to even greater differences.
Several civilian employees testify that last year's salary increase for them landed at around SEK 400 a month, while many police employees received a total of just over SEK 2,000.
"Discriminating against us like this risks threatening the entire police authority. We are a third of the corps, over 10,000 people, says a civilian investigator at the police in Gothenburg.
"One third of the corps"
This week, a protest letter was sent addressed to the unions within the Police Authority signed by "members of ST within the police and Seko". The letter has been circulated within the organization.
"We don't want to hurt or make our society more unsafe than it already is, but we deal with shootings, rapes and everything in between, so why should the person sitting next to me doing the same job get 2400 SEK more a month and I 400 SEK? says a civilian employee in Malmö.
Threatens to "mask"
That there is an internal atmosphere of rebellion among the civil investigators has been confirmed by several different sources that SVT has spoken to. Protest actions such as "slowdown" and "mask" are cited as possible reactions from civilian investigators, hoping to get the police leadership to listen.
"A lot of people talk about masking, we started today," says a source in serious crime.
"We can't strike, but we can implement other types of actions like doing things very slowly," another source said.
A civilian employee in northern Sweden believes that there is great internal support for the civilian employees' protests.
"If we can influence by masking, we will at least do it here," says the source.
Trade unions criticised
According to Ann Gustafsson, vice president of the ST police union, the union has been pursuing the issue for a long time.
"ST's position is that the employer should have requested funds from the outset for the revaluation of all employees, including civilian investigators," she says.