Swedish literary translators facing different contracts with different publishers. Union negotiates to get fair conditions in new contract models.

For many years Swedish literary translators (https://oversattarsektionen NULL.se/) could rely on a collectively negotiated Standard Contract that was used for translation commissions with most publishing companies. It was widely used and considered fair and favourable for translators. It also offered translators a minimum security in that they could point to it as a model even in cases where publishers had their own, less fair contract models.

After lengthy negotiations to modernise the Standard Contract the Publishers’ Association terminated it in 2017. A temporary contract model was finally negotiated separately with the biggest Swedish publishing house, Bonnier Group, in the summer of 2018. The situation since then has been that there have been mainly two contract models, one with the Bonnier Group (https://www NULL.bonnierforlagen NULL.se/) and a modified Standard Contract with other big and small publishers.

Before last Christmas the Swedish Writers’ Union (https://forfattarforbundet NULL.se/in-other-languages/about-us/) and the Bonnier Group finally agreed on a contract that will last for at least five years. A few of the more important new provisions in this contract are that there will be a time limit for licences with a right to remuneration for extensions and a possibility to make the new contract retroactively applicable for older contracts.

The Writers’ Union will now start negotiating a new contract with the second biggest publisher, Norstedts, an old venerable publishing company which now is a subsidiary of the streaming company Storytel.