I’ve written this in other threads so it will just be a repetition for a lot of you who are following how the story unfolds.
Here in Sweden we don’t have any laws defining “minimum wage” and some laws regulating things like minimum amount of vacation days can be “replaced” in an agreement.
Now, the idea is that the parties of the labour market, employers and employees should deal with these issues because politicians should stay the f*** away from things they know nothing about. The agreement is normally renegotiated by the employer organisations (yes, the employers are also organized here) and employee organisations (unions) every 2-3 years. While signing an collective agreement is not mandatory it is still expected. It’s the norm.
In my experience employers refuse to agree on collective minimums is because they want to be able to do whatever they want with their employees.