It doesn't sound that obviously stupid to me. It's the stock purchase plan part of a 401k, where instead of the employee/employer-match coming before taxes, it comes from taxes. Either way it's tax incented, the difference is partly semantics. Giving those shares to trade unions instead of individuals makes it more like the classic pension system than the 401k, but the concepts are similar enough that it's quite possible to see the Swedish approach here as almost a direct forerunner to the 401k.