Transnationellt arbete och arbetsmiljöreglering : En studie av EU:s påverkan på den svenska arbetsmiljöregleringen och det nationella manöverutrymmet utifrån fallet med utstationerade arbetare i byggbranschen 1994–2018

Since Sweden joined the European labor market there has been an increase of posted workers, primarily in the construction industry. The aim of this thesis is to study how the EU has affected the Swedish health and safety regulation in the case of posted workers in the construction industry and what room for maneuver there was on the government agency level in the application of the EU-regulations, during the period of 1994–2018. Three research questions are examined: 1) How has the number of posted workers in the construction industry changed? 2) How has the work environment for the posted workers in the construction industry developed? and 3) How has the Swedish Work Environment Authority ap-plied the work environment regulation for posted workers in the construction industry? The results show that there are major gaps in the statistics and enforcement. Most alarmingly, while the posted workers’ share of employment, according to public records, at its highest is around 2 percent, in 2018, their share (together with unregistered foreign workers) of the death accidents in 2008–2017 is much higher, at 14 percent. The EU has weakened the regulation but there have also been hindrances on the national level