p a r t i v, c h a p t e r 5 136 masters and servants.They were rejected with reference to the need to maintain a patriarchal relationship between the parties, which was said to constitute the essence of Swedish law and which raised the master-servant contract above the level of other labour agreements.273 The formative period of modern Swedish labour law started in 1885 and ended around1930. Face to face with a radically changed social, economic and political situation, like in other Western countries, the Swedish lawmakers had to choose between three main ways of intervening in the labour market. The first one entailed public law sanctions, mainly within criminal law and police law, the second one led to regulations of the content of the contract of employment and the third one to mandatory mediation or arbitration.When the formative years of modern Swedish labour law came to an end in the early 1930s, the last alternative had proved to be the only possible way to establish peace on the labour market. On the legislative level, the shift began in 1885 with the abrogation of theVagrancy Act’s demand for annual employment for poor people, a rule which had its origin in the medieval provincial codes.274 At the end of the period not only the Statue on Hired Servants of 1833 had been totally abolished. Furthermore, in 1928 acts had been introduced about the binding force of collective agreements and mandatory arbitration at a labour court.275 Between 1929 and 1934, the court had established fundamental general principles of law. Among these were the employee’s far-reaching duty of obedience, which reflected the employer’s right to direct and distribute work276 as well as the employer’s right freely to engage and dismiss workers277, and to execute a preferential right of interpretation.278 273 MAK1896:96; MFK1898:7; MAK1898:19; MAK1898:179. 274 SFS 1885:28. 275 SFS 1928:253, 254. 276 AD1929:29. 277 AD1932:100. 278 AD1934:179.
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