We are IKEM. We represent Chemical and Innovation companies in Sweden. We share the same vision: to find industrial solutions to the global challenges.
Our members’ discoveries and business are a prerequisite for sustainable growth and more efficient resource utilisation, for example cleaner energy, more effective medicines and new transportation solutions. Our companies consider bio-based production of chemicals, materials, fuels and products to be a very real future.
Some of them are in fact already there.
We are their offensive and skilled partner. As the industry’s catalyst we pave the way for our Swedish member companies to reach the world and attract foreign-owned companies to invest in Sweden. The possibilities are boundless – as is our field of operation.
We play an important role regarding Sweden’s future as a leading industrial nation. Since chemistry is necessary for innovations also in other industries, our members are of crucial importance as regards how Sweden will stand up in international competition. And thereby also for Sweden’s prosperity and the prosperity we all enjoy together.
Promoting the industry of the future and stimulating growth and innovation are in other words our most important task. Always with our members in mind, never at the expense of the earth’s well-being. This insight drives us in everything we do, from inspiring tomorrow’s chemists is schools’ chemistry labs to persistently driving matters of industrial policy in the corridors in Brussels.
IKEM – Innovation and Chemical Industries in Sweden represents about 1,250 Swedish and foreign-owned companies with some 70,000 employees.
We are an industry and employers’ organisation for companies working with chemistry in a broad sense, as manufacturers, distributors and users. The companies are chemicals and plastics industries, pharmaceutical manufacturers, refineries or biochemistry and bioengineering companies. We also represent members in the stone, cleaning, metal and recycling industries.
As IKEM companies are all over Sweden, so are we. We have offices in Stockholm. Gothenburg, Malmö, Norrköping, Växjö – and in Brussels.
IKEM is a member of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv), and in international organizations such as Cefic, ECEG, FECC and EuPC.
As a member of IKEM, you get support and advice on employer issues, an industry-adapted collective agreement that creates clear ground rules and a strong voice for the industry's competitiveness. We pursue issues such as ensuring access to electricity throughout the country and fast, legally secure permit processes.
In Sweden, things are running quite smoothly by way of the Swedish labour market model – keeping a fair labour market with competitive companies.
Collective bargaining agreements are very common on the Swedish labour market. To a very large extent they regulate the relationship between an employer and its employees. Here's a summary on how they work.
Useful fundamental information about Swedish labour law and obligations for the employer.
Templates for employment contracts and summaries on the biggest collective agreements.
Do you have questions about employment law or the interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement? Members of IKEM gets rapid help with basic employment law issues from our experienced consultants and negotiators.
IKEM has drawn up an EU agenda to address the challenge of transition.
EU Agenda for competitiveness and transition