All 25,000 employees of the food industry are covered by universally binding collective agreements.

The Board for the Ratification of Validity of Collective Agreements has reviewed the collective agreements for food industry workers on 10 November 2025. All five collective agreements for food industry workers between SEL and ETL are still universally binding:

>> Collective agreement for the Bakery Workers
>> Collective agreement for the Meat Industry
>> Collective agreement for the Dairy Workers
>> Collective agreement for the Food and Drink Industries
>> Collective agreement for the Breweries and Soft Drinks Factories

Universally binding means that the collective agreement applies to all employers and employees in the sector, including those who are not members of an employers’ association or trade union.

All approximately 25,000 employees in the food industry sector are covered by the universally binding collective agreements between SEL and ETL.

The current collective agreements for food industry workers are valid until 31 January 2028, but either party can terminate the collective agreements after two years, at which point the collective agreements will be valid until 31 January 2027.

The collective agreements for food industry workers have been translated into English and Swedish.

Thanks to the collective agreement negotiated by SEL, you have better terms of employment than those required by law. Your workplace can agree locally on better wages and other terms of employment than the collective agreement, but not worse.

If you have any questions about your salary or other employment matters, your workplace’s SEL shop steward will help you. The shop steward is best familiar with the local agreements made at your workplace that affect your terms of employment.

If your workplace does not yet have an SEL shop steward, the matter cannot be resolved at the workplace, or you are not currently employed, call SEL on 09 4246 1200.