The Federation of European Employers (FedEE) released a study in September 2004 of employment litigation in European countries. The incidence of legal action by employees varied hugely. “A typical large company in Belgium can expect to defend 28 court cases brought by present or former employees every year, but a similar firm [1,000 employees] in Sweden faces an average of only one case every ten years.”
Country-specific differences in how employees and employers deal with each other legally account for these wide disparities. It is not as if Belgium is 280 times more litigious on employment disputes than is Sweden. The US, with its over-arching federal statutes and courts, and substantial similarity among state employment laws and litigation practices, experiences no such drastic differences between states.