Labour Law in the twilight zone between Private Law and Public Law

In Sweden, parts of public care have been transformed from relatively large public entities into smaller and increasingly private enterprises. New forms of personal service have been created. Among these are personal assistants, inhabitant supporters, personal representatives and caretakers of relatives. These services find themselves in a twilight zone between public and private: To an increasing extent tasks are performed by private actors and in the same time the enterprise is partly ruled by public law and is financed by public means. Sometimes a family member of the user carries through the tasks and then the work finds itself in a twilight zone between employment relations and family relations. Either the local authorities, entrepreneurs or the users themselves may be the employers of the people who provide the services. Different labour law provisions are applied according to the nature of the employer and collective agreements often replace legal provisions. The goals of labour legislation are not always compatible with the goals of the social rights of the citizens and the position of employees in the collective agreements may be both unclear and weak. It may also be unclear what is to be considered an employment and who is to have employer responsibility.