Deployment of Telework in European Public Administrations

Part Two: Selected Cases
53
Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA) (1997), p. 13 and 16.
54
European Commission, DG XIII (1997), p. 20.
55
Engström, Mats/Johanson, Rickard (1997).
56
Government Official Reports/Ministry of Transport and Communications (1997).

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of telework and the vision of a win-win situation for employer and employee. Equal treatment for
on-site staff is demanded, a frame for the availability of teleworkers is proposed, the employer's
responsibility for purchasing equipment and covering insurance is suggested. The union is
currently working on a collective agreement
57
and has issued guidelines for home-based
teleworking environments.
58
Among the 78 European ‘good practice’ telework cases presented at ‘Telework 97’ in Stockholm,
several Swedish examples from the public administration could be found. The administration of
the Swedish Parliament has conducted a pilot with ten participants. Stockholm County Council
has established an electronic network for healthcare and medical services which serves also for
administrative staff. In the Umea Social Welfare Services 15 people, social workers as well as
administrative staff conduct home-based telework. And the Environmental Office at Linköping
Local Authority has set up a pilot mainly to study the effects on employees as well as potential
environmental benefits.
59
An investigation carried out by the Kommunförbundet, the association of local authorities, in
1997 reveals that in 17% of the municipalities telework is practised by about 140 civil servants,
another 11% have developed solid plans for its introduction.