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Letter to all political parties


According to this new "arbertidslag", all the working-hour-plan ("shema") must include a consecutive rest of more than 11 hours between daily shifts without exception. This "arbertidslag" severely limits the social life of handicapped people without improving the personal assistants' working condition for many cases, as described below.

The most important hours when the handicapped people need help is the morning, the night and sometime during the day. Since the morning help is needed 8-10 hours after the night help during a trip, this "arbertidslag" makes it impossible for handicapped people to make overnight trips with just one personal assistant, no matter how little help (in hours) is need. Even a person who needs only 4-6 hour/day help (0.5-2 hours helps each in the morning, noon and/or evening, and night) still have to bring two assistants even for a short 2-night trip (note #1).

Bringing the second assistant to the trip immediately causes extra difficulty in planning and extra costs.

(1) Planning difficulty:
Taking regular personal assistants is always safer and less troublesome than taking supplement. However, regular assistants often have small children. I have only two regularly working assistants, and both of them have ground-school children. Finding two people (both assistants for my case) simultaneously free and healthy during the planned period is not easy. The new arbertidslag forces parents of small children leave home several nights.

(2) Transportation space:
Some of the overnight trip is done using a car with a friend/colleague driving. Since handicapped person has extra baggage such as wheelchair and rollator (I need rollator in addition to wheelchair for toilet), it is quite difficult to place two additional people in one car.

(3) Extra Cost:
The handicapped person has to pay the accommodation and transportation for personal assistants. The accommodation is not cheap because handicap-fitted hotels are normally expensive. The transportation is also expensive because people living in Kiruna have to take air place even to Stockholm. Finding extra money for just one assistant is already tough for some handicapped people, and new "arbertidslag" requires at least two personal assistants.

(4) Sick risk:
To reduce the extra travel cost, almost all handicapped person has to use low-price fare, for which one cannot change the name of the passenger. However, there is always a risk that the assigned personal assistant cannot go at the last minutes due to children's sick etc. It is economically impossible to buy last-minute flight fare for the supplement person, particularly for the international trips. Therefore, the trip has to be cancelled if one of the assistants cannot go. This risk is doubled with new "arbertidslag".

Furthermore, the "arbertidslag" might make intercontinental trips impossible no matter how many assistants are accompanied:
(5) Everybody in Kiruna who travel to Asia has to take the 0600 am plane and to travel nearly 24 hours or more until she/he check-in the hotel in the afternoon of next day. One cannot plan any 11-hour continuous rest none of departure day or arrival day. I am afraid that new 11-hour regulation prevents me visiting my family in Japan.


Thus the new "arbertidslag" by itself significantly reduces chances that handicapped people to travel, although a travel is an important element of both work and socialization. Then the question is whether taking two assistants really improves the working condition.

(1) During stay:
The assistant normally has her/his own hotel room nearby where the handicapped person stays (at least for my case). She/he can prepare her/his own sleep nearly simultaneously as the handicapped person, and hence a 9-hour night break is sufficiently long if the total daily working hours (including waiting ("jour") time in her/his room) is less than 8 hours. Furthermore, the personal assistant has sufficient rests during day (continuously 3-8 hours in the morning and/or afternoon) for "relatively-light" handicapped person.

(2) Short trips: A common type of trip is a short overnight trip (staying just one or two night) at a car distance. Since such a trip is accompanied by friend/colleague, help is needed only the morning (< 1 hour), night (< 1 hour) and only few hours during day. Yes it is impossible to plan 11-hour continuous break. I do not see any advantage in asking two people to stay away from home and sit in a squeezed in one car many hours for such a short trip.

(3) European trips:
For trips from Lapland to south Europe, the expected check-in time to the Hotel is often 21-22 pm. Then, no personal assistant (no matter how many I take) is allowed to start working until 9 am next morning, which is too late for handicapped person to wake up. In the real planning, one has to add "jour" hours in case of possible flight delay, and one cannot plan any work before noon. To observe the law, one assistant has to work until 9 am next morning (and 11-hour break afterward), but I do not see any improvement in working condition for this person because the hardest part of the trip is the way until the arrival.

(4) Day after:
Bringing two assistants means that one/both of the assistant must work already the day after the trip for "relatively-light" handicapped people because the handicapped person does need more help at home than at the hotel (for hospital visit, shopping, rehabilitation training etc). Since the traveling part is the toughest part (flight to Kiruna arrives 23 pm when no delay), working next day makes this toughest part even tougher.

Furthermore, the "arbertidslag" might make the working condition tougher no matter how many assistants are accompanied:
(5) From Abroad to Lapland, travelers sometimes have to stay overnight at Arlanda because of the connection. If the international flight to Arlanda arrives after 22 pm, one may not take the home flight before lunch because the "shema" has to include the time for check-in etc. (excluding possible delay!). This forces the traveller wait until the evening flight that arrives 23 pm instead of around noon for most of Lapland cities. Arriving 23 pm is much tougher than having connection flight within short connection time.


As seen, I cannot find strong advantage of taking two assistants on the overnight trips. Then, it is natural to ask that the exception terms to be introduced, so that "relatively-light" handicapped person can make trips with one personal assistant instead of two. Right now, the only way to go around this 11-hours regulation is the union-employer agreement ("kollectiveavtal"), but relying on such a local rule is not the ideal way to get around the essential problem. I do not yet know if it works in Kiruna (I have only negative information). Therefore, I believe that we need to add well-formulated exceptions (note #2) in the law itself as soon as possible so that handicapped people should not suffer too much from the 11-hour regulation.

With this background, I would like to hear about how your party would solve this conflict between the handicapped people's life and the new "arbertidslag".

Finally, I mention that I am a co-convener of an international conference in France next year, and it does not sounds good for Sweden if I cannot attend that conference because of this new law.
Sincerely

Masatoshi Yamauchi

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Note #1) The local assistants can be arranged for only limited cases (trip to big cities within Sweden) and one has to bring the assistant for most of the cases (e.g., all trips to small village and abroad). As a Kiruna-resident, it is impossible for me to find local assistant for any short (car-distance) trips. Also, my work includes that I attend international conferences.

Note #2) For example, my very rough idea for the exception for business-trip is outlined as:
(a) "consecutive rest between two working day should be more than total average working hours of the relevant two days if the consecutive rest is less than 11 hours if the hotel room for the worker is provided." (this is during stay.)
(b) "the first night's rest must be more than 8 hours, with the starting time depending on the check-in time to the hotel if the hotel room for the worker is provided." (this is for when the flight arrival is late.) as the exception during trip. With this exception, only one assistant would be enough for the above examples.