Comparative Labour Law In Practice: Lessons From Germany And Sweden For India
- IJLLR Journal
- Dec 4, 2025
- 1 min read
Niharika S Shankar, Gujarat National Law University
ABSTRACT
Labour law is key in creating a balance between capital and labour within the global economy, so that economic dynamism can flourish without placing protection of workers at risk. There are lessons to be learned, therefore, from the experiences of other advanced economies in respect to labour laws. This paper compares two leading Labour market systems – Germany and Sweden with a view to drawing implications for India’s ongoing labour law reforms. Germany has statutory co-determination and works councils which institutionalize worker participation in corporate governance.
Sweden, on the other hand, focuses on collective bargaining and flexicurity with a worker-friendly welfare state rather than on individual protectionism in order to accomplish simultaneously flexibility for employers and security for employees. Using a doctrinal–comparative approach, the paper examines legal norms and institutional policies in each country, identifying their relative strengths, weaknesses and alignment with ILO standards. It suggests that wholesale transplantation of either model is not feasible but a hybrid approach, which provides for some elements of legal institutionalism in combination with trust based collective bargaining could be a practical route forward more equitable and sustainable labour law.
