Profile in members database: Lena Svenaeus
E-mail: Sweden@ewla.organd board@ewla.org
C.V.
Lena Svenaeus,
born in Lund, Sweden in1943
Academic education
University of Lund
Master of Arts, Latin and French 1966
Bachelor of Law, 1972
Working experience
Lena Svenaeus is specialised in labour law and human rights legislation. She has a background as judge and worked 1972-1976 in district courts and in the Labour Court. In 1977 she was employed as a union lawyer at the Legal Bureau of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. For more than 15 years she has assisted unions and their members, mainly before the Labour Court. 1992-1994 she was counselor for Working Environment and Labour Affairs at the Embassy of Sweden in Ottawa, Canada. Since 2004 LS is chief union lawyer at the Swedish Association of Graduates in Social Science, Personnel and Public Administration, Economics and Social Work. She is in charge of the union´s court cases and has a responsibility for the antidiscrimination strategy of the union.
When the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman´s Office was established in 1980 LS was appointed Deputy Ombudsman. Between 1994 and 2000 she headed as EO Ombudsman this governmental institution, responsible for the supervision of the Equal Opportunities Act. Equal pay for equal work and work of equal value has been a strong commitment of the Ombudsman and a number of “test cases” on comparable work were brought to the Labour court during these years. During her spell 2000-2002 as Director General in the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications the legislation of mandatory analysis of wage differentials between men and women was elaborated and put in force.
Lena Svenaeus has been Swedish member of the EU Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities 1995-2000 and during 1999-2002 member of the Commission’s Expert network on sex discrimination. She is board member of “Kvinna till Kvinna” Foundation and of the Stockholm School of Economics.
Publications
Comparative Labor Law, 1982 Vol 5, No 4: ”The Position of Women in Labor Law and Social Security, Sweden”
Strategies and Contracts for Economy and Love, report from the 10th Nordic Conference for Women lawyers and law professors in 1998 – essay titled ” Is Swedish Equal Opportunities legislation a myth? A comparison with the EU legislation”
Manuals edited by The EO Ombudsman
1 ”Wage discrimination”, 1995
2 ”Job evaluation”, 1995
3 ”Active measures for equal opportunities in the workplace”, 1996
4 ”Sexual harassment”, 1997”
5 ”Recruiting without discrimination”, 1999 (together with others)
Essay, titled ”20 years later - an evaluation of the legislation on sex equality”, in the Festschrift in honour of Anna Christensen, 2000
”Highlighting wage differences between women and men”, a report by Susanne Fransson, Lena Johansson and Lena Svenaeus, written for the government in the planning of the Swedish presidency 2001
A great number of articles on sex equality legislation and discrimination cases before The Labour Court, most frequently in ” Lag och Avtal”, periodical on labour law
Legal responsibility for the publication of periodicals 1994 - 2000
Jämsides, periodical on Equal Opportunities, edited four times a year
Newsletter on the activities of the EO Ombudsman, edited 10 times a year
Profile in members database: Lena Svenaeus
E-mail: Sweden@ewla.organd board@ewla.org