Balancing the Right to Strike and Other Public Interests: The Importance of the Status of the Right to Strike
Article
2025. Petra Herzfeld Olsson, Shae McCrystal.
Petra Herzfeld Olsson
Contact
Name and title: Petra Herzfeld Olsson
Phone: +468161317
Workplace: Department of Law Länk till annan webbplats.
Visiting address Room C 876Universitetsvägen 10 C
Postal address Juridiska institutionen106 91 Stockholm
About me
Petra Herzfeld Olsson is Professor of Labour Law at the Department of Law and Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of Law, Stockholm University. My research areas are labour law, European law and human rights. I am interested in both national and international aspects of labour law.
I have previously worked at the Faculty of Law, Uppsala University, the Ministry of Labour and the National Institute for Working Life.
Course director for the advanced courses:
The Global Labour Market and International Labour Law, 15 hp
Labour Law, 15 hp ( from spring 2023)
Deputy course director:
Civilrätt C (family law and labour law), 10,5 hp
My research has long been characterised by an interest in the protection of human rights in working life and the interaction between different legal levels. Research questions related to labour migration have also been given considerable attention. On my own and together with other researchers, I have addressed the EU's regulations on labour migration from third countries and their effects at the national level, as well as the Swedish rules on labour migration and their interaction with Swedish labour law, in several publications. This issue was included in the three-year research project A sustainable and inclusive Swedish labour law - the ways ahead (Swedish Research Council), which was completed in 2022. Professor Niklas Bruun and Associate Professor Erik Sjödin, Stockholm University, Peter Andersson, PhD, University of Gothenburg, and Professor Tonia Novitz, Bristol University, also participated. Our results can be found here: https://www.socialcivilratt.se/research/. In the spring of 2025, I began a new three-year research project, The Swedish model in a new era? (FORTE), together with Associate Professor Caroline Johansson and Dr German Bender, which deals with the new role of the social partners in the legislative process. Since autumn 2025, I have also been participating in the ERC project RethinkingWork, led by Professor Elise Dermine, L'Université Libre de Bruxelles. I am also working on a couple of articles about Kerstin Hesselgren at the ILO and as a labour inspector.
- The Labour and Social Security Rights of Captive Workers
- led by Virginia Mantouvalou, UCL
- 2022-
- Towards Adequate Minimum Wages in the European Union
- together with Mette Sösted Hemme
- led by Luca Ratti, Elisabeth Brameshuber, Vincenzo Pietrogiovanni, Universities of Luxembourg, Vienna and Lund
- 2022-2023
- Folkrätten och svensk rätt 2.0
- led by Rebecca Thorburn Stern, Inger Österdahl och Anna-Sara Lind, Uppsala universitet
- 2022-2023
- Reserach Handbook of Migration and Employment
- together with Zvezda Vankova
- led by Guglielmo Meardi, Scoula Normale Superiore, Florens
- 2021-
- Handbook of Civil Service in Europe
- together with Erik Sjödin
- led by K.,- P Sommerman et al, University of Speyer
- 2022-
- Migrant Labour and the Reshaping of Employment Law
- led by Bernard Ryan and Rebecca Zahn, University of Leicster and Glasgow
- 2017-2023
- The Furure of Labour law
- led by Barbara Palli, University of Lorraine
- 2020-2022
- Read more about Balancing the Right to Strike and Other Public Interests: The Importance of the Status of the Right to Strike
Rättsliga ramar för barns arbete i scenkonstbranschen - vilka röster får komma till tals?
ChapterRead more about Rättsliga ramar för barns arbete i scenkonstbranschen - vilka röster får komma till tals?2025. Petra Herzfeld Olsson, Sabina Hellborg.The Civil Service in Sweden
ChapterRead more about The Civil Service in Sweden2025. Petra Herzfeld Olsson, Erik Sjödin.Access to Work for Those Seeking Asylum
ArticleRead more about Access to Work for Those Seeking Asylum2024. Petra Herzfeld Olsson, Tonia Novitz.This article seeks to probe the controversial relationship between seeking asylum and the permission (or obligation) to work. In doing so, we recognise the concurrent claims that can be made for asylum and access to the labour market, problematising the concept of ‘work’ and its relationship to freedom and dignity from the perspective of international refugee law and European human rights norms alongside European Union (EU) law. We examine how British and Swedish legal systems have reflected two starkly opposed policy stances. The UK has long denied asylum seekers the financial and psychological benefits that come with work usually until refugee status is formally granted, but the Swedish system has facilitated a complementary pathway for asylum seekers whose labour can make (what is determined politically to be) a sufficient contribution to the economy. We identify the perceived benefits and failings of each strategy. In this context, we observe that the status quo in both countries is changing and even arguably converging around an illiberal consensus regarding the relationship between asylum and work, which will demand further attention and potentially legal challenges in the years to come.
Europe
ChapterRead more about Europe2024. Petra Herzfeld Olsson, Zvezda Vankova.The aim of this chapter is to provide a brief overview of the legislative framework on EU labour migration, comprising rules covering EU workers exercising their right to free movement, workers who are posted by a company to provide services, and workers coming from outside the EU, referred to as ‘third country nationals’. It presents the development and content of the main instruments of the EU acquis covering these three categories of foreign workers. It then moves on to discuss whether the legislative framework described has responded adequately to challenges identified in relation to the different groups of foreign workers by focusing specifically on the outcomes of the EU acquis on third-country-national workers, the differentiated right to equal treatment depending on the category of foreign workers, and the enforcement problems of the frameworks discussed. The chapter ends with some concluding remarks, including ideas for future research.