Working Conditions for Female and Immigrant Cleaners in Stockholm County – An Intersectional Approach

Abstract

This paper deals with the working and employment conditions of cleaners with an overview of Sweden but with main emphasis on the Stockholm region. The article is based on a review of previous research, statistics from Sweden, and interviews with cleaners and owners of cleaning firms. Results indicate that working conditions among Swedish cleaners are generally unfavorable with regard to employment contracts and the low status of the profession. Conditions seem to be worst in the Stockholm region, with its turbulent market. The cleaning industry in the Stockholm region consists of too many firms and there is an adverse business climate within this regional industry. We argue that there is a connection to the model of intersectionality, which implies that there is an interlinking of identity constructions and socially organizing principles in terms of class, gender, ethnicity/“race,” and citizenship. Cleaning or charwork constitutes one of the lowest working-class positions in society. Cleaners are at the bottom of the hierarchy, below the owners and other white-collar workers in the industry. The majority of cleaners in the region are women and/or of immigrant origin, not least men and women from non-European countries; many have low educational levels, low proficiency in the Swedish language, and deficient knowledge of laws and regulations. All these factors add up to powerlessness, something that aggravates the situation for the cleaners in the county.

Part-Time Work in the Nordic Region II

“…The increase in part-time employment is explained by demand-side factors such as clients' need for service, a constant pressure for lower prices and employers' need to replace labour and cut labour costs. The employers interviewed by Abbasian and Hellgren (2012) give similar answers as employers in other industries, for example that the employees prefer part-time and hence it is voluntary or that the working hours are set by the client. The high exposure to competition in this industry reinforces the employers' preference for part-time employees since they are easier to replace and cheaper to employ and hence the employer can offer lower prices.…”

“…Several of the contributions discuss parttime employment arising from the demand-side of the labour market. Yet, only Abbasian and Hellgren (2012), Kauhanen (2008) and Branine (1999) present data on employers' view on part-time employment. The first article relies on qualitative data and the latter two on quantitative data.…”

“…The first article relies on qualitative data and the latter two on quantitative data. Abbasian and Hellgren (2012) interview employers in the cleaning industry in Stockholm, Kauhanen (2008) present data from Finland and Branine (1999) compares the public health services in Denmark, France and the UK. Kauhanen (2008) does not report the response rate for the employer survey used and the Branine (1999) study has low response rates, reducing the quality of the empirical investigation.…”

“…In security services, seasonal fluctuations, customers' need and easy availability of part-timers were the most important reasons (Kauhanen 2008). Abbasian and Hellgren (2012) investigate the working conditions for cleaners in Stockholm County. The point of departure for their study is that the cleaning industry was largely privatised following a New Public Management reform in Sweden.…”

Intersectional Directions in Working Life Research—a Proposal

“…The work of these scholars represents early and central contributions that have illuminated not only the multiple forms produced and reproduced in the Swedish labor market but also the links between migration, racism, gender, and divisions of labor across public/private divides. There are other intersectional analyses of work located in the field of gender studies that have illuminated the specific position of migrant and racialized workers (such as Boréus & Mörkenstam 2010;Huzell & Lundberg 2010;Sager 2011;Abbasian & Hellgren 2012), the racialization and gendering of the labor process itself, as well as the impact of neoliberal economics in the organization and transformation of care work in Europe (Calleman 2007;Gunnarsson & Szebehely 2009;Gavanas 2010;Strollo 2013). Thus, there exists a stream of intersectional working life research within the research tradition of working life studies in Sweden, although we would argue that the works of these authors rarely have been acknowledged as central to this field.…”