Nutek official Kurt Ekelund did not immediately recognise the problems raised by HTF, when asked. To receive subsidies within a grant area, a company has to meet certain requirements. Theoretically a decision on subsidies could be revoked, but to his knowledge this has never happened. The picture is, however, complicated by the fact that there are several different forms of subsidies available and several authorities involved, each of them with knowledge chiefly within their own area of expertise. Commentary The call centre service industry has grown rapidly in Sweden over recent years.
Figures estimating the number of call centre employees vary, depending on the definitions used.
According to the Invest in Sweden Agency, in September 1999 approximately 7,100 persons annually worked at external call centres in Sweden. To many regions where unemployment is high, the establishment of a call centre may be a genuinely positive factor, many Swedish experts agree. The drawbacks of the controlled and repetitive work are compensated for by the fact that call centres give young, unskilled workers an opportunity to enter the labour market. Since the government actively supports the growth of the call centre industry in Sweden, it is of some political importance that working conditions, wages etc at those call centres that receive subsidies are satisfactory. A trade union such as HTF, for its part, has an interest in putting these questions into focus, since unsatisfactory conditions emphasise the need for a union and makes the recruitment of new union members easier.