c o n t i n u i t y a n d c o n t r ac t 345 “One has the strange sensation of observing a great wheel loaded with human passengers, revolving slowly but inexorably so as to bring them back to their starting point”.609 This analogy, however, would not be fair.The labour court’s contractual approach meant an important modification of the century-old concept of master-servant relationships.The transplantation of pre-industrial, ethical components to modern labour contracts turned out to be selective. In this version the servant’s duties of obedience and loyalty were considered as genuine and thus transplantable to modern service contracts, while the master’s diffuse obligations to defend and take care were definitely on the decline. Subordination was natural, protection of employment was not. As has been mentioned, the modern individual contract of employment was made in the shadow of collectivisation. It is a historical fact, though often repressed, that the breakthrough of a collectivist model and an imperative corporativism occurred under a non-socialist government.The labour court was established on the initiative of the employers but against the official will of the labour movement. In contrast to the trade unions, SAF demanded nationwide agreements, a corporativist composed labour court and far-reaching rights to sympathy actions.The organisations on the labour market were entrusted the task to supervise their members, to prevent them from taking illegal industrial actions. One legal historical lesson from this formative period was that the employee’s duty of obedience could be legally founded and legitimatised only within a collectivist system. Both LO and SAF have changed their attitudes since 1928. The labour court and corporativist solutions have received a strong legitimacy within the labour movement. From the 1990s, on the other hand, the employers’ organisation has rejected the collectivist model to link up with international currents that 609 Dawson 1968, p. 450. 12. 2 subordinat ion and the swedi sh mode l
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