A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO SWEDISH LABOUR LAW

fOR TEkNIkföRETAgEN MEMBER COMpANIES

Teknikföretagen, 2018 Form: Tagg, Stockholm Fotograf: Eva Lindblad Tryck: Ljungbergs Tryckeri AB

A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO SWEDISH LABOUR LAW

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PREFACE

A Short Introduction to Swedish Labour Law concerns the general aspects of labour legislation and Teknikföretagen´s collective bargaining agreements. Companies with specific problems can also refer to other information from Teknikföretagen. The Employer’s Guide at www.teknikforetagen.se has a rich supply of information in English. For further information and advice please contact our helpline at 08-782 08 80.

The collective bargaining agreements mentioned are available in English and can either be downloaded from our website or ordered in print from www.lamanica.se.

Teknikföretagen

Stockholm, 2018

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A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO SWEDISH LABOUR LAW 1

PREFACE 3

CONTENTS 4

INTRODUCTION 7

TEKNIKFÖRETAGEN 9The Teknikföretagen organisation 10Teknikföretagen collective bargaining agreements 10Purpose of negotiation activities 11

THE SOCIAL PARTNERS 13Employers’ Organisations 13Employee’s Organisations 13Industriavtalet 15European Level 16

CO-DETERMINATION AT WORK 19Right of Association 20Right and Obligation to Negotiate 21Right to Information 23Collective Bargaining Agreements 23Right of Interpretation 26Right of Veto Over Engagement of Subcontractors 27

EMPLOYEE INFLUENCE THROUGH BOARD REPRESENTATION 29

STATUS OF TRADE UNION REPRESENTATIVES 31

EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION 33Exclusion from Protection by the Employment Protection Act 33Employment 34Employment Forms 35Termination of Employment 38Resignation 48Rights of Priority for Re-employment 48Collectively Agreed Reinforced Right of Priority for Re-employment 49Disputes 50

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CAREER READJUSTMENT FOR REDUNDANT EMPLOYEES 53TSL for Wage Earners 53Trygghetsrådet for Salaried Employees 55

DISCRIMINATION 57The Discrimination Act 57Parental Leave Act 61

WORKING HOURS 63Legal Foundation 63Collective Bargaining Agreements 63Daily and Weekly Rest Periods 64Reduction of Working hours 65Other 66

THE WORK ENVIRONMENT 67

TIME OFF 71Sick Leave 71Annual Leave 73Parental Leave and Benefit 75Compassionate Leave 77Leave of Absence 78Training and Education 78Dependency Leave 79Conducting a Business Operation 79

EMPLOYEES’ INVENTIONS 80

DISPUTE RESOLUTION 81Negotiation procedure 81Employees not Members of an Employees’ Organisation 86

VOCABULARY English–Swedish 87

VOCABULARY Swedish–English 97

SWEDISH LABOUR-RELATED LEGISLATION 106

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INTRODUCTION

Labour law is the body of law which regulates the relationship between employers and employees. It also regulates the roles of employers’ and employees’ organisations (or trade unions). It is defined in statutes and ordinances, collective bargaining agreements and individual employ-ment contracts. The latter is, however, not the main focus here.

For many years, the private labour market was characterised by the regu lation of employment relationships in collective bargaining agree-ments. One reason for this was the desire of the social partners to avoid government intervention, which could unnecessarily limit their freedom. In this spirit, a number of collective bargaining agreements were signed over the years and these have exercised considerable influ-ence over both companies and employees.

The 1938 Basic Agreement between SAF and LO, also called the Saltsjöbaden Basic Agreement or Huvudavtalet, was originally hailed as the cornerstone of the Swedish model of industrial relations. SAF was the predecessor to Svenskt Näringsliv (Confederation of Swedish Enterprise). LO is Landsorganisationen, a confederation of employees’ organisations for wage earners. This agreement was followed by a basic agreement with Sif (now Unionen), for salaried employees. Although these basic agreements have been terminated by the employees’ organi-sations, certain rules concerning negotiation procedures and industrial action remain in effect.

The spirit of negotiations between employer and employees still exists as a dispute resolution model. If no agreement is reached the matter may be referred to the Swedish Labour Court. The Court settles disputes in connection with the Employment (Co-determination in the Work-place) Act or Co-Determination Act, collective bargaining agreements, employment protection and other disputes. This procedure is supposed to result in an efficient and fairly speedy dispute resolution.

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In the last 35 years however, there has been a growing amount of legislation in the area of labour law. This development has been largely at the express wish of the employees’ organisations. Another reason for the increase in legislation is the influence of the European Union and the ensuing implementation of various directives through legislation. Many of these concern discrimination.

The relationship between employers and employees and their respec-tive organisations is now ruled by an increasingly complex body of legislation. It is possible to provide here only a general account of the most important Swedish regulations.

The Co-Determination Act contains the overall provisions governing the relationship between employers and employees through their organisations in areas such as information, negotiations and interpre-tation of agreements. Other Acts are aimed at protecting the individual employee. These cover employment protection, annual leave, working hours, work environment, time off, discrimination and more.

However, many of these laws are discretionary and may be departed from by collective bargaining agreements (semi-discretionary). The general reason is to allow for the social partners to arrive at better and more suitable solutions for their particular branch of industry through collective bargaining agreements.

The provisions of the laws and the complementing collective bargain-ing agreements are complex and easily misinterpreted. Employers who ignore or are unaware of the intricacies of legislation and agreements act at their peril. Errors can result in a liability to pay economic com-pensation or punitive damages. It is therefore essential that employers and management have a comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge of these matters.

The aim of a Short Introduction to Swedish Labour Law is to provide Teknikföretagen member companies with an overview of the current legal situation.

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TEKNIKFÖRETAGEN

Teknikföretagen (The Association of Swedish Engineering Industries) is an employers’ organisation representing more than 3 600 engineering companies – Sweden’s most important companies.

Our members operate in a range of sectors such as telecommunications, fabricated metal products, electronics, machinery and equipment, office machinery, power industry, instrument technology, optics, motor cars and vehicles and transport equipments

We speak for companies with more than 300 000 employees. Engineer-ing companies are Sweden’s most important businesses – for growth, jobs, the future and welfare. These companies mean more for the de-velopment of the Swedish economy than any other sector of business and account for half of Sweden’s exports.

The mission of Teknikföretagen is to represent and promote our member companies, to provide support in the areas of labour legisla-tion and employment terms. We get involved in and act on issues that are important to the engineering industry in Sweden. We make an im-pression in the opionionmaking, present ourselves in various contexts and make our way in the corridors of power.

Long term aims for Teknikföretagen is to work for more flexible regu-lations on the labour market. We also want to attract the interest of young people to a future within technology companies and ensure that technical training courses are improved. Furthermore we want to improve the conditions for technical development and enterprise. Finally, it must be profitable to work.

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The Teknikföretagen organisationTeknikföretagen works through three legal persons, but here we will refer only to Teknikföretagen.

Föreningen Teknikföretagen i Sverige looks after the interests of the member companies through lobbying and providing information to government agencies, politicians and the general public on the impor-tance of the engineering industry to the economy and to growth.

Teknikföretagens Service i Sverige AB provides member companies with a range of services such as advice and support in negotiations, acting as counsels in court proceedings, training, networking and help with government agency contacts. Teknikföretagen has several regional offices to be better able to support our member companies.

Teknikföretagen collective bargaining agreementsFöreningen Teknikarbetsgivarna i Sverige enters into collective bargaining agreements with the employees’ organisations IF Metall, Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer and Ledarna.

As members of Teknikföretagen, companies are bound by our collec-tive bargaining agreements – Teknikavtalet IF Metall for wage earners and Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna for salaried employees.

These collective bargaining agreements contain general conditions regarding working hours, employment, different forms of leave, over-time and more.

The agreements also have rules regarding minimum wages and salaries as well as rules regarding pay increases. Wages and salaries are to be differentiated according to individual and other circumstances.

The general conditions and pay agreements are re-negotiated with certain intervals.

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These agreements should be applied also for employees who are not members in IF Metall, Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer or Ledarna. Which agreement to apply is determined by the work performed and not individual union membership.

Where applicable, we will explain in each section what is separately regulated by our collective bargaining agreements.

Purpose of negotiation activitiesTeknikföretagen’s negotiation activities aim at keeping our members’ business activities free from labour market interruptions. We represent our member companies in negotiations relating to the collective bargaining agreements.

We also assist our member companies in local and central negotiations. If companies have to take legal proceedings we represent them in the district court or the Swedish Labour Court. This is all included in the membership fee. For more on dispute resolution see separate chapter.

Furthermore, we help our members to interpret laws and collective agreements as regards the relationship between employer and employee. We also offer education in labour law, collective agreements and negotiation skills.

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THE SOCIAL PARTNERS

Employers’ OrganisationsTeknikföretagen is one of several members of Svenskt Näringsliv, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. It is an umbrella organisation for Swedish employers’ and industry associations representing 54 000 Swedish companies. It consists of 50 trade and employers’ associations, with a total labour force of 1 600 000 employees covering 70% of the Swedish private sector.

Employee’s OrganisationsIF Metall has some 440 000 members at nearly 13 500 workplaces, affiliated to 52 local branches. Its members work in the mechanical engineering and plastics industries, the building component industry, the mining sector, the ironworks sector, the textile and clothing indus-tries and more.

Unionen organises employees in companies that operate in areas such as IT, telecom, construction, manufacturing and R&D, but also have many members in the distribution, trade, retail and public sectors.

Sveriges Ingenjörer is the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers. An engineering degree is required to become a member of this em-ployees’ organisation. Its members work both in the private and the public sectors.

Ledarna is the employees’ organisation for managerial and professional staff and recruits members in various areas.

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Swedish employees’ organisations are members of different central organisations. IF Metall is part of LO, Landsorganisationen. LO is the central organisation for 15 affiliates which organises wage earners within both the private and the public sectors. The 15 affiliates together have about 1 700 000 members of whom about 770 000 are women. The 15 affiliates of LO have independent status, and LO is primarily an organisation for co-ordination, research, signing labour market insur-ance schemes and creating public opinion at central and regional levels.

Unionen is a member of TCO, the Swedish Confederation for Profes-sional Employees. It is a federation of sectoral employees’ organisations organising white-collar employees in all sectors of the labour market, both private and public. The member organisations together organise around 1 300 000 employees.

Sveriges Ingenjörer is a member of Saco, the Swedish Federation of Professional Associations. Saco is a federation of sectoral employees’ organisations with some 500 000 university educated members. Many of its member organisations have their roots in professional associa-tions dating back to the 19th century. Most are occupational trade unions based on educational level.

Ledarna is not a member of any of the above-mentioned central em-ployees’ organisations. However, together with Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer and several other employees’ organisations in the private sector it is part of PTK, The Council for Negotiation and Co-operation. This organisation was formerly known as the Federation of Salaried Employees in Industry and Services. PTK has 27 member organisation, representing 700 000 salaried employees in the private sector.

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IndustriavtaletSince 1997 several employers’ organisations and employees’ organisa-tions within industry have cooperated within Industriavtalet – the Cooperation Agreement on Industrial Development and Wage Forma-tion (the Industrial Agreement) – regarding industrial development, competence development and wage formation. Certain rules stipulate how negotiations on collective bargaining agreements are to be con-ducted to further the competiveness of Swedish industry and a strong durable wage formation. Typically the companies represented by these organisations face international competition. Therefore, in Industri-av talet the parties make clear that the level of wage increases for the internationally competing industry should be a benchmark for the rest of the Swedish labour market.

A new agreement is in force since 2011. The new agreement has new rules regarding how to negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Also, the employers’ organisations and employee’s organisations party to Industriavtalet agree that cooperation within Industriavtalet shall have precedence to other negotiating constellations, for example how wage earners’ unions act within LO.

The employers’ organisations in Industriavtalet are Teknikföretagen, Industri- och KemiGruppen, Stål- och Metallarbetsgivarförbundet, Svemin, SVEMEK, Livsmedelsföretagen, Byggnadsämnesförbundet, Skogs och Lantarbetsgivarförbundet, Skogsindustrierna, TEKO and Trä- och Möbelindustriförbundet.

Stål- och Metallarbets givar förbundet, Svemin and SVEMEK sometimes appear together as Industriarbetsgivarna.

The employees’ organisations that have signed Industriavtalet call themselves Facken inom industrin, The Swedish Unions within Industry. The six employees’ organisations are: The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers, Unionen, The Swedish Foodworkers’ Union, IF Metall. The Swedish Forest & Woodworkers’ Union is a member of Facken inom industrin but is no longer a party to Industriavtalet.

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These employees’ organisations are members of different central organisations but have come together to further the interests of their branches of industry.

To monitor and promote the Industrial Agreement these employers’ organisations and employees’ organisations have set up the Industri-rådet, the Industrial Council.

From the Industrial Agreement also follows an Economic Council for Industry, a Negotiation Agreement for Industry with Impartial Chair-men (OpO) and more.

European LevelTeknikföretagen is a member of the European employers’ organisation CEEMET (Council of European Employers of the Metal, Engineering and Technology-based Industries). The members of CEEMET repre-sent 200 000 member companies across Europe providing some 13 million jobs and covering all products within the metal, engineering and technology-based sectors. Together, these companies make up the largest industrial sector in Europe. CEEMET coordinates with ORGALIME (the interest organisation for suppliers) in some branch-specific issues.

CEEMET represents, promotes and defends the social policy-related interests of their members working together with all stakeholders to create and maintain a sustainable and competitive environment for European industry. The main task is to watch and lobby the ongoing work with legislation within the EU in the areas that concern engineer-ing companies.

Within the framework of CEEMET representatives from Teknikföreta-gen and our counterparts within the EU meet in working groups for labour law, industrial relations and education and training issues and more. At these meetings views and opinions on current legislative mat-ters are discussed and coordinated in statements and position papers

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on matters of common interest. The representatives also exchange in-formation regarding their respective collective agreements, legislation and its application and their national industrial relationship. In this way Teknikföretagen can smoothly help our member companies to get in contact with representatives from our European sister organisations and receive information from them.

The trade union counterpart to CEEMET is EMF, the European Metal-workers’ Federations.

CEEMET coordinates its work with BUSINESSEUROPE where the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and its European sister organisa-tions are members. BUSINESSEUROPES’ trade union counterpart is ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation.

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CO-DETERMINATION AT WORK

The Employment (Co-Determination in the Workplace) Act, known by its Swedish acronym MBL or medbestämmandelagen, concerns the relationship between the employer and the employees through their local employees’ organisation. Thus, it does not give individual employees any specific rights.

The most significant areas of the Co-Determination Act, as we will refer to it here, are the collective bargaining agreement and the peace obligation, the right to negotiate, the right to information, the employ-ees’ organisation’s right of interpretation and right to veto.

Some of the provisions of the Co-Determination Act are semi-discre-tionary and may be derogated from or supplemented by collective bargaining agreements, so called co-determination agree ments. Without such an agreement it is somewhat misleading to speak of co-determination. The right of co-determination does not in principle go further than a right to information and consultation before the employer makes a decision regarding significant changes.

Co-determination should not be interpreted as an obligation for the employer to reach an agreement with the employees’ organisation.

As certain areas of the Act are semi-discretionary, some of the provi-sions of the Act, such as mediation, time limits for initiation of central negotiations and litigation over breaches of the Act do not apply to Teknikföretagen member companies. Through such agreements as Industriavtalet, Utvecklingsavtalet and the Saltsjöbaden Basic Agreement other rules apply.

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Right of AssociationBoth the employee and the employer have the right to join associations and to engage in their activities. This is referred to as the right of as-sociation. It is a right that has been regulated by statute for many years and forms the major legal basis for joint action by the employees’ and employers’ organisations.

Employees may organise themselves in employees’ organisations. Hereby is meant an association of employees which, according to its statutes, shall protect the interests of its members in relation to the employer. It is sometimes referred to as a trade union.

Likewise, the employers may organise themselves in employers’ organisations.

Sometimes the term local employees’ organisation is used. This means an association of employees that is a party to local negotiations with an employer. The term central employees’ or employers’ organisation means a national or equivalent association of employees’ or employers’ organisations.

There is no need for a certain proportion of the employees to be asso-ciated in order to create a local branch of an employees’ organisation. Basically, a group of employees can declare themselves an association and they will thereby have formed en employees’ organisation. Consequently, the threshold to create an employees’ organisation is low in Sweden.

The right of association must not be infringed upon. If an employer discriminates against an employee because of his trade union member-ship or activities, he may be liable to pay punitive damages.

Critical or adverse comments are not generally regarded as infringe-ments of the right of association unless accompanied by some sort of action.

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Right and Obligation to NegotiateEmployees’ organisations have a right to negotiate with the employer in areas regarding the relationship between the employer and present or previous employees who are members of the organisation. Employers have a corresponding right to negotiate with employee organisations. An individual employee does not have a legal right to negotiate accord-ing to the Act.

Before an employer takes any decision regarding significant changes in his activities or in the working or employment conditions of individual employees, he has to initiate negotiations with the relevant employees’ organisation before he makes the decision (Section 11 of the Co-Deter mination Act). The relevant employees’ organisations are those to which the employer is bound by collective bargaining agreements.

However, it should be noted that the term negotiation is misleading when it comes to issues regarding co-determination at work. What is meant by negotiation is an obligation to inform and to consult with the employees’ organisation before the employer makes a decision. The employer is not obliged to reach an agreement with the employ-ees’ organisation. If negotiations are concluded without reaching an agreement, the employer may decide as he sees fit. Thus, the decision-making power ultimately rests with the employer.

The obligation to negotiatie only applies in areas where the employer, after having followed the procedures laid down in the Co-Determina-tion Act, can decide himself. The obligation to negotiate does not cover the day-to-day management and direction of how the work should be carried out.

Issues that must be negotiated are, for example, the introduction of a new organisation, downsizing, hiring of a new manager, changing an individual’s area of work and similar significant changes. As a general rule, the Labour Court has stated that where the employees’ organisa-tion can be expected to have an interest to negotiate, the employer has a duty to initiate negotiations.

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Note, however, that it is enough for the obligation to negotiate to arise if a subsidiary acting as an employer accepts and acts upon a decision made by the parent company. The obligation to negotiate rests with the employer (company) and is not dependent on where the actual decison-making is carried out within a group of companies. This is the case regardless of whether the decision-making is carried out by the parent company in a Swedish group of companies, by a private owner or by a foreign owner. Thus, there is an obligation to negotiate for the Swedish employer even though an issue concering a Swedish unit is actually decided abroad by a foreign parent company.

If the employer makes a decision without negotiating, he is in breach of his duties according to the Co-Determination Act and may be liable to pay punitive damages. Such damages are decided by the Labour Court.

Regarding less significant issues, an employees’ organisation bound by a collective bargaining agreement has the right to initiate negotia-tions. In such cases, the employer is also obliged to postpone a decision or the implementation of a decision that has already been made. In special circumstances, the employer may make a decision, even though negotiations have been requested or are in progress.

The obligation to negotiate infers an obligation for the employer to enter into negotiations, listen to arguments and to state and justify his position factually.

The employees’ organisation is also obliged to enter into negotiations when called for by the employer. However, if the employees’ organisa-tion does not wish to negotiate a certain question, the employer would normally see no need to negotiate either. It is important, therefore, to have the invitation to negotiate in writing and to make a note of the employees’ organisation’s disinterest to negotiate.

An issue may also be negotiated at the so-called central level with involvement from Teknikföretagen and the corresponding central employee organisation, if required by the local employee organisation. The employer must defer the decision until such negotiations are com-pleted, except in special circumstances.

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Right to InformationThe employer is obliged to regularly inform his local negotiation part-ners about the development of his business in financial and operational terms as well as about personnel policy guidelines.

In principle, the Co-Determination Act states that there should be an open attitude at the company giving the employees access to informa-tion about the general progress of the company. Copies of documents do not have to be provided if this may lead to unreasonable costs or difficulties. The employer may, in exceptional cases, be released from the obligation to inform.

Any party who is subject to an obligation to provide information shall have a right to negotiate with the other party in respect of a duty of confidentiality regarding the information that is to be provided.

The employer’s right to withhold confidential information is deter-mined through negotiation with the employees’ organisation. If no agreement is reached, the employer may seek permission from the Labour Court. Generally, this will be granted only if disclosure could seriously harm the employer.

Collective Bargaining AgreementsCollective bargaining agreements are an important foundation for co-operation in the workplace and they have a dominant role in the regulation of terms of employment. This is achieved by the collective bargaining agreement acting as a legally binding supplement to the individual employment contract.

Collective bargaining agreements must be in writing and are conclud-ed by an employer or an employers’ organisation and an employees’ organisation. It must concern conditions of employment or otherwise the relationship between employer and employee.

Two features of collective bargaining agreements are particularly important:

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• Anydeviationsfromthetermsofacollectivebargainingagreementare not valid unless such a deviation is expressly permitted by thecollective bargaining agreement (the mandatory effect of collectivebargaining agreements).

• lngeneral,industrialactionisnotpermittedwhenthereisavalidcollective bargaining agreement, if the object of the industrial actionis to alter the agreement or to exert pressure in a dispute over theinterpretation of a collective bargaining agreement (the so-calledpeace obligation).

A collective bargaining agreement is reached through negotiation. The Co-Determination Act makes it clear that every employees’ organisation and employer or employers’ organisation have the right to negotiate in all areas which affect the relationship between employer and employee. This includes entering into an agreement in order to regulate unresolved issues or to replace previous regulations.

Collective bargaining agreements may be entered into for a specified period or until further notice.

Central collective bargaining agreements, such as Teknikavtalet IF Metall, Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna and Tekniktjänsteavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer, are normallyentered into for a specified period by an employees’ organisation and an employers’ association, such as Teknikföretagen. Such an agreement is binding for both parties and their members. Generally, it also applies to non-unionised employees unless otherwise stated.

Collective bargaining agreements can also be entered into by an em-ployer and a local employees’ organisation, a local collective bargaining agreement.

The application of a collective bargaining agreement may be nation-wide or apply to a specific industry, company or business unit.

There is no legal obligation to reach an agreement. However, a party which is unable to persuade the other side to enter into a collective bargaining agreement may take industrial action as a means to force

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the other side into an agreement. This is usually permitted as a last resort under the Co-Determination Act.

Once a collective bargaining agreement has been agreed on, a peace obligation comes into effect. Industrial action may not be initiated with the intent to change the agreement or imposing one party’s interpretation on the other. The party which fails to respect the peace obligation may be obliged to pay damages.

This means that most issues discussed at local company level can not lead to industrial action if both parties are bound by a collective bargaining agreement, which places a peace obligation on both parties. This applies to Teknikföretagen member companies.

According to the Co-Determination Act, a party planning to take industrial action must first give notice to the opposing party and to the National Mediation Office (Medlingsinstitutet). A special mediator may then be appointed to settle the dispute. This can be done even without the consent of the disputing parties. Industrial action can be postponed by the National Mediation Office for a period of up to two weeks.

However, this does not apply to Teknikföretagen member companies. They are covered by the so-called Industriavtalet, the agreement con-cluded by several employers’ and employee organisations represent-ing Swedish industry, see chapter on Social Partners. It stipulates how negotiations regarding central collective bargaining agreements should be conducted. Through independent arbitrators and certain time limits the purpose is to avoid industrial action by concluding a new central collective bargaining agreement before the previous agreement expires.

What is known as the residual right to take industrial action gives employees the collective right to take industrial action as a result of unsatisfied demands for co-determination at work. This is providing that these demands have previously been presented in connection with central wage negotiations.

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Any dispute over a collective bargaining agreement that is already in effect must be solved through negotiation and can, as a last resort, be tried by the Labour Court. Special negotiation procedures are stipulated for these circumstances. In general, the first course of action is local negotiations between the employer and the local employees’ organisa-tion at the workplace. If no agreement is reached, central negotiations may be initiated. If negotiations fail to settle the disagreement the matter can be referred to the Labour Court.

One of the main tasks of the Labour Court is to settle disputes over the inter pretation of collective bargaining agreements. The Labour Court usually consists of a panel of seven judges, three of whom have legal training. Two members are nominated by organisations on the em-ployer side and two by organisations on the employee side.

Right of InterpretationIf a dispute should arise over whether an employee is obliged to per-form a particular task the employees’ organisation’s interpretation of the duty to work has, in principle, precedence over that of the employer. Thus, the employees’ organisation has an interpretative precedence. Note however, that the view of the individual employee is subordinate to that of the employer.

If the employer does not accept the employees’ organisation’s inter-pretation, he must call for negotiations and as a last resort turn to the Labour Court for a ruling. Until the court announces its decision, the employees’ organisation’s interpretation will prevail.

The employees’ organisations have also been granted similar interpre-tative precedence in cases where the two sides have different interpre-tations of the implication or content of a co-determination agreement. As mentioned earlier, such agreements are not very common.

Furthermore, the employees’ organisation has interpretative prece dence in disputes over pay (Section 35 of the Act). Thus, where such a dispute

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occurs, the view of the employees’ organisation will prevail unless the employer promptly initiates a negotia tion. If no agreement is reached, the matter must be referred to local and central negotia-tions and later the Labour Court within a short time limit. If the employer fails to do this, he becomes liable to pay in accordance with the employees’ organisation’s interpretation of the agreement, except where this is unreasonable.

Right of Veto Over Engagement of SubcontractorsAn employer planning to engage a subcontractor must first initiate negotiations with the relevant employees’ organisation. The reason for negotiations in such cases is to give the employees’ organisation an op-portunity to examine, for example, whether the subcontractor applies illegal employment conditions.

Employees’ organisations have a right of veto. Thus, they may prevent an employer from engaging a subcontractor if the employees’ organi-sation declares that the action that the employer intends to take may be deemed to violate legislative provisions or the collective bargaining agreement or otherwise be in conflict with the established practices in the industry.

The right of veto is limited to specific purposes and may, for example, not be used to ensure that certain work is reserved for the employees of the company in question or where the employees’ organisation otherwise has no objective reasons for its veto. The veto does not apply where the employees’ organisation lacks grounds for its position.

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EMPLOYEE INFLUENCE THROUGH BOARD REPRESENTATION

The Co-Determination Act is based on the position that the employees’ organisations are counterparts to the employer. The key principle is that differences of opinion between the employer and an employees’ organisation should be resolved through negotiation. Another way of achieving co-determination in the workplace is through representation on the company board of directors.

The Board Representation (Private Sector Employees) Act empowers employees to appoint board members. The main purpose is to give employees, through the employees’ organisation, a better view of and influence over the management of the company. It should be seen as a complement to the Co-Determination Act.

Employees of companies with at least 25 employees are entitled to appoint two members and two deputy members to the board. However, this only applies to companies bound by collective bargaining agree-ments. In companies which are engaged in different branches of indus-try and have more than 1 000 employees, the employees are entitled to appoint three members and three deputy members to the board.

The employee representatives are appointed by the employees’ organi-sations. They should be employed by the company, but this is not a requirement.

If there is an executive committee, employee representatives are entitled to participate in its work. This also applies to other planning bodies within the company, where such bodies deal with issues which are to be decided on later by the board of directors.

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If the business consists of a group of companies, the employee repre-sentatives on the board of the parent company may be appointed by employees’ organisations which represent all the employees within the group.

Employee representatives have the same standing and responsibilities as other board members, except in exceptional circumstances where there may be a conflict of interest, such as issues regarding collective bargaining agreements and industrial action or similar issues where the interests of an employees’ organisation in the workplace differ strongly from those of the employer. In these cases the employee repre-sentatives are not allowed to participate. The employee representatives are always assumed to constitute a minority on the board.

Contravening the Act may render the employer or the employees’ organisation liable to pay damages.

The employee representatives on the board of directors have to be careful how they treat information that could influence financial in-struments markets. As all members of the board, they are insiders and must not disclose sensitive information that could influence financial instruments markets.

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STATUS OF TRADE UNION REPRESENTATIVES

Many of the rights granted to employees under labour law are enjoyed on their behalf by the local employees’ organisation bound by a collec-tive bargaining agreement. The basic protection for union activities is provided by the Co-Determination Act, see above.

The Trade Union Representatives (Status at the Workplace) Act regu-lates the position of trade union representatives. The law applies to employees who are appointed by local employees’ organisations bound by collective bargaining agreements to act as representatives in trade union activities. This is providing that these activities could affect their relationship with the employer. The concept of union activities is wide-ranging.

The local employees’ organisation is basically free to decide how many representatives should be appointed at the workplace. Trade union representatives may not be prevented from carrying out trade union activities or discriminated against because of such activities. A trade union representative is entitled to reasonable time off to perform his trade union activities. Exempted from this is internal work in the em-ployees’ organisation such as board meetings, trade union representa-tion in society or political work.

The time off must be coordinated with the employee’s normal work duties through deliberation with the employer and its timing must be agreed to in advance.

While carrying out trade union activities related to his own workplace, the representative is entitled to unchanged conditions of employment

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and full pay. Regarding other trade union activities the representative is also entitled to reasonable time off, but without those benefits. Normally the employees’ organisation will pay its members for such activities.

Should a dispute arise between the employer and the employees’ organisation concerning the application or interpretation of the Act, the interpretation of the employees’ organisation will prevail until the dispute has been resolved. This does not affect the employer’s right to refuse leave that jeopardises the security at the workplace, important utilities or similar interests.

An employee’s organisation may be liable to pay damages for acting in violation of the Act and at the same time realises or ought to have realised the wrongfulness of its application of the Act.

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EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION

One of the central pieces of Swedish labour law is the Employment Protection Act, also known by its Swedish acronym LAS.

This law covers, among other things, forms of employment – until further notice or for a fixed term, how to calculate the length of em-ployment, employment in transfers of undertakings, termination of employment, shortage of work and time limits for initiating litigation.

Several of the Sections are discretionary and may be departed from by collective bargaining agreements (semi-discretionary). Many Sections are also discretionary in that they may be departed from to the benefit of the employee, but not to the employee’s disadvantage.

One alternative to employment is to hire staff from an agency. Note, however, that this must be preceded by negotiations according to the Co-Determination Act. Also, if there are previous employees (only wage-earners) with rights of priority for re-employment, they may have collectively agreed rights of priority for re-employment, see below. This means that the employer must follow certain rules when considering whether to hire staff from an agency.

Exclusion from Protection by the Employment Protection ActA few categories of employees are excluded the protection by the Act.

Employees whose duties and conditions of employment are such that they may be deemed to occupy a managerial or comparable position are excluded from the application of the Employment Protection Act.

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Usually this applies only to the CEO, and even in bigger companies it applies only to very senior management employees. For these employ-ees it is possible to agree on other terms than those stipulated by the Act. Their employments can be terminated without objective grounds.

Members of the employer’s family are not covered by the Employment Protection Act, nor are those who are employed to work in the em-ployers household.

Employees who are employed for work with special employment sup-port or in sheltered employment are not covered by the Act either.

EmploymentThe employment contract can be written or oral. We recommend the use of written employment contracts. In the Employer’s Guide at www.teknikforetagen.se, under Employer forms, a suitable form can be found (Anställningsbevis).

Even if there is no requirement of a written contract, the employer is obliged to provide written information of all the terms and conditions that are of material relevance to the employment relationship. This must be done within one month after the commencement of work by the employee. By using the abovementioned form this information is provided.

As there are no legal rules on how to enter into an employment it can arise out of the conduct of an employer and an individual. If the indi-vidual starts to work and the employer pays a salary or wage then an employment contract is entered into.

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Employment Forms

Until further notice

The Employment Protection Act states that an employment is valid until further notice, except where otherwise agreed.

Fixed Term

According to the Employment Protection Act, fixed term or temporary employment is permitted only in those cases specified by the Act. These Sections of the Employment Protection Act are semi-discretion-ary. Teknikföretagen has collective bargaining agreements with IF Metall, Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer and Ledarna which replace or deviate from the statutory rules on fixed term employment.

Obviously the employment protection is stronger for employments until further notice. The party claiming that the employment is for a fixed term must be able to show that this is the case. Therefore it is in the interest of the employer to have the work contract in writing, especially when it is for a fixed term.

The following are excerpts from the current Agreements (2017-2020).

Teknikavtalet IF Metall

Fixed-term employment in the area of this agreement shall be entered into only in accordance with this agreement, which fully replaces the regulations relating to fixed-term employment in the Employment Protection Act.

An agreement between the employer and employee relating to fixed-term employment shall be in writing.

An employer and employee may reach agreement on fixed-term employment of at least one month’s and at most twelve months’ duration without a local agreement. If the employee is a student or pensioner or has a collectively agreed reinforced right of priority for

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re-employment according to subsection 3, the employer and employee may also agree on fixed-term employment that is shorter than one month. The employer must inform the local union branch of any fixed-term employment in accordance with this paragraph.

An employer and an employee may agree on fixed-term employment that involves the employee being employed for a time in excess of twelve months during a three-year period, provided there is a local agreement to this effect.

NoteThe requirement for a local agreement in cases of very short fixed-term employment, except where the employee is a student or pensioner or has a collectively agreed reinforced right of priority for re-employment according to subsection 3, aims at avoiding a widespread system developing where, for instance, fixed-term employment is used for frequently recurring cases of single-day employment (so-called day labourers). The parties are, however, in agreement that short spells of fixed-term employment can be fully justified. Fixed-term employment for those with a collectively agreed reinforced right of priority for re-employment according to subsection 3 shall not be shorter than one day.

If there is no local union branch, the employer and employee may agree on fixed-term employment without a local agreement with the trade union, which must however be informed of each individual case.

NoteIf the trade union is of the opinion that there is misuse of the provision in the last paragraph, it is entitled to call for local or central negotiations in the matter. If the dispute is not resolved, the company that the dispute relates to will be bound by the same rules as a company where there is a local union branch.

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Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/LedarnaFixed term employment where this agreement is applicable must be entered into only with application of this agreement, which in itsentirety replaces the rules regarding fixed term employment in the Employment Protection Act.

Employment for a fixed term must be in writing.

NoteThere may be various reasons to use fixed-term employments. Examples are substitute employments, projects limited in time and probationary employments to try qualifications or suitability.Employment for a fixed term, shorter than one month, of youths of school age, students or salaried employee who has reached the normal retirement age for the person in question in accordance with the ITP plan may be entered into orally.

Employer and employee may agree on a fixed-term employment for at least one month and at the most 24 months of employment over a three-year period. Regarding youths of school age, students or salaried employees who have reached the normal retirement age for the person in question in accordance with the ITP plan and salaried employees employed after having reached the retirement age applied at the com-pany, agreement may be reached also regarding fixed term employment shorter than one month.

Up until the point when the employee has an aggregate length of employment at the company of six months, the employee or the employer may end the fixed-term employment by notifying the other party in writing. The employment ceases one month after the written notice. After six months of aggregate length of employment, a fixed term employment is valid for the agreed time unless the employer and employee specifically agree that the employment may be terminated prematurely. In cases where a fixed term employment may be

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• Noticeofterminationofemploymentfromtheemployerortheemployee.

• Thefixedtermrunsout.

• Summarydismissal.

• Anemployee’simmediateresignationwheretheemployerinafun-damental respect has failed to fulfil his obligations to the employee.

• Anagreementtotheeffectthattheemploymentceasestoexist.

terminated prematurely the parties may not agree on a shorter notice than what is stated in section 12.

Note

If the employees’ organisation considers that the possibility to employ for a fixed term according to the last paragraph is abused, the organisation may request local and central negotiations in the matter. If the dispute is not resolved the company in question must, for the future, apply the same rules as for companies with a local union branch.

As regards Sveriges Ingenjörer, by “local union branch” is meant Sveriges Ingenjörer’s local union branch at the company.

Termination of EmploymentContracts of employment can be terminated in the following ways:

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Employments until futher notice can be terminated only if there are objective grounds for termination (uppsägning). Objective grounds are shortage of work or personal reasons, see below.

Termination of an employment until further notice must be preceded by a notice of termination, followed by a notice period. For summary dismissal there is no notice period.

Fixed term employment is normally terminated without notice when the specified period of employment expires. If the fixed term agreement allows for it, a fixed term employment can be terminated before the end of the specified period. Otherwise it can be impossible to end a fixed term employment prematurely.

Notice of Termination

Notice of termination by the employer must be based on objective grounds.

Objective grounds can be either shortage of work or personal reasons. It is important to distinguish between these two reasons as the rules diverge strongly.

Before the employer gives notice of termination, he must inform the employee and his local employees’ organisation of his intentions two weeks in advance. The employee and his employees’ organisation are then entitled to deliberations with the employer before notice is given. Under these deliberations the employer can explain the reasons for his actions. The employee may demand to have the reasons in writing.

The employer is obliged to give notice of termination in writing. Certain information must be included in this written notice. Teknik- företagen has drawn up a standard form for this purpose, available from the Employer’s guide at www.teknikforetagen.se, under Employer forms.

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Notice Period

During the notice period, the employee is entitled to receive all his regular employment benefits. This applies even if the employer can not find work for the employee who has been given notice. It is possible to release the employee, by an agreement, from his duty to work. However, in some cases there is a possibility to make wage deductions if the employee obtains work from another employer during the notice period.

For employees who are on parental leave at the time of being given notice of termination due to shortage of work, the notice period begins only when the employee resumes work or when the employee was supposed to have resumed work according to his or her application for parental leave in force when notice is given.

Calculation of the length of the notice period differs between wage earners and salaried employees.

Wage earners

For wage earners the length of the notice period follows the rules in the Employment Protection Act § 11.

The notice period depends on the length of employment.

If the employee decides to give notice of termination the notice period is one month.

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Salaried employees

For salaried employees in Teknikföretagen member companies the rules on the notice period are in the Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna Section 12. The notice period is determined by the length of employment.

As for wage earners the notice period when the employer gives notice ranges between one and six months with one exception. Employees, who are 55 years old at the time of termination due to shortage of work and have been employed by the company for ten consecutive years, are entitled to a further six months notice period totalling twelve months.

If the salaried employee gives notice, the notice period can be from one month up to three months, depending on the length of the employment.

Objective Grounds

As mentioned above, termination of employment must be based on objective grounds (just cause). Objective grounds are shortage of work or personal reasons.

Objective grounds do not exist where it is reasonable to require the employer to provide other work in the company for the employee. An important condition is that there must be an opportunity to relocate (omplacera) the employee. Thus, there has to be an available position. The employer is not obliged to create a new position. It is important though to investigate whether there are any vacancies available to the

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employee (omplaceringsutredning) in the company. The obligation to provide other work is valid within the whole legal entity and is not limited to the unit. Any uncertainty in this respect can mean that objective grounds are not at hand.

It is not reasonable to require the employer to provide other work if the employee has seriously misbehaved. It may be reasonable to provide other work if the employee can not perform his work. Maybe the employee can perform less complicated tasks. An employee whose work ability is lower due to illness may have the capacity only for less demanding work.

Personal Reasons

Employments can be terminated for personal reasons. Such reasons are related to the behaviour of the individual employee. The behaviour must be serious enough to constitute objective grounds for dismissal.

Personal reasons that could lead to a dismissal include absence without leave, refusal to accept orders, insobriety, a distinct lack of the necessary abilities or disloyal behaviour in various forms. This includes engaging in competition with the employer or otherwise causing damage to interests or property of the employer. Criminal offences, such as theft, violence or threats, directed against the employer or related to the workplace or other employees normally constitute objective grounds for termination of employment.

Generally, it is difficult to dismiss employees for personal reasons and the employer may in some situations be required to try less far-reaching measures before giving a notice of termination.

If the employee neglects his or her duties the employer may try to rectify this by issuing rebukes, reprimands or warnings in writing. The employer must make clear in what way the employee has misbehaved and what the employer expects from the employee. Thus, the purpose of such measures is to correct the behaviour of the employee to avoid

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continued wrongdoing, so that termination of the employment will not be necessary. The employer must make it clear to the employee that the employment may be at risk in case of further misconduct.

The concept of objective grounds should be interpreted cautiously with reference to the precedents set by the Labour Court.

Shortage of Work

Shortage of work (arbetsbrist) is a legal term that includes all reasons for reducing the labour force that are not related to the personal behaviour of an individual employee. It is normally of a collective nature where several employees are given notice simultaneously, but may also be limitied to an individual employee, for example after a reorganisation.

It is the employer who decides when there is a shortage of work. Such a decision can not normally be challenged in court. Shortage of work may arise when a company or a unit is no longer profitable, but also if a company decides to no longer operate the way it used to or to dis-continue parts or all of its operations. This applies even if the company has not yet made any losses. Thus, if the company decides to organise its business in another way this may constitute shortage of work.

Before reorganising the company and reducing the labour force due to shortage of work the employer must negotiate according to the Co-Determination Act.

In case of shortage of work, the employees’ organisations party to Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna have taken upon them to reach agreements regarding the order of priority, see Section 12 of the Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna. Such an agreement determines which employees to give notice of termination (turordningsöverenskommelse). The purpose of this is to ensure the long-term sustainability and profitability of the company. This com-mitment was dependent on the employer’s financing of the Agreement on Redeployment (AGE), see next chapter. Through TRR, Trygghets-

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rådet, efforts to secure new employment, such as training and out-placement, are made.

Regarding wage-earners Section 9 subsection 2 of the Teknikavtalet IF Metall also calls for an agreement on the order of priority in cases of shortage of work. For wage earners there is an agreement on a fee-based redeployment insurance (Redeployment TSL and AGB, see next chapter). The employer can withhold financing of training and efforts to secure new employment unless there is an agreement regarding the order or priority.

As just mentioned, in cases of staff reductions the company and the employees’ organisations should agree on the order of priority in which employees are to be given notice of termination. The agreement must be made in writing and in the form of a collective bargaining agreement (see above). Such agreements are rather frequent and constitute a permitted and foreseen deviation from the Employment Protection Act (Section 22).

If the parties can not reach an agreement, Section 22 of the Employ-ment Protection Act applies. A special order of termination (turordning) should be drawn up for each operational unit within the company, listing the employees according to the length of employment.

In companies with ten or fewer employees, two employees of particular importance for the future activities may be exempted from the special order of termination.

Separate orders must be prepared for each category of collective bargain-ing agreement, one for wage earners and one for salaried employees.

If there are several operational units (driftsenheter) in the same local-ity (ort), a single order of termination shall be drawn up for all the units if the local employees’ organisation party to the Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna makes such a request. For IF Metall the local parties must agree that a single order of termination be drawn up for all the operational units at the same locality.

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The employees with the longest aggregate period of employment with the company have priority to continued employment over employees who have been employed for a shorter time. If the employee has to be relocated, the priority is contingent on the employee possessing satis-factory qualifications for the continued work.

Satisfactory qualifications are sometimes defined as the qualifications requested when employing from outside the company. A period of up to some months of training may have to be accepted, but not re-edu-cation. The consequences are that the employee entitled to continued employment is not necessarily the best suited for that particular work.

Thus, it is fairly easy to reduce the work force because of shortage of work in Sweden, while it can be more difficult for the employer to keep the employees he wishes.

Transfers of Undertakings

A transfer of undertakings according to the Employment Protection Act Section 6 b does not constitute objective grounds to terminate employments. In cases of transfers of undertakings or parts of under-takings, the employment relationship is transferred automatically to the new employer.

The employer, i.e. the transferer, is prohibited from terminating em-ployment contracts if this is a result of the transfer.

The employee can count all the accumulated time of employment with the old employer also at the new employer. Staff made redundant can, if qualified, claim rights of priority for re-employment with the new employer, see below.

Two Months Preclusion Rule

Notice of termination that is based on circumstances relating to the employee personally may not be based solely on circumstances that

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were known to the employer for more than two months before notice of termination was given.

The purpose of this rule is to protect the employee from living under a constant threat of dismissal. Unless the employee misbehaves again, the employer is prohibited from terminating the employment if more than two months from the point of knowledge of the circumstances have passed.

There are exceptions to this rule. If the employee has requested the employer to delay giving notice or has consented to a delay, the em-ployer can use the circumstances to give a notice of termination. Also, in cases of extraordinary circumstances, the two months’ rule does not apply.

Summary Dismissal

An employee may be summarily dismissed (avskedande) where he has grossly neglected his obligations towards the employer in cases of serious misconduct such as theft, violence, threats, sexual harassment or longer absence. Serious breaches of the duty of loyalty towards the employer, such as competing with the employer or destroying property belonging to the employer, can also constitute objective grounds for termination of the employment.

The consequence of a summary dismissal is that the employee will have to leave the company without any notice period.

Before the employer summarily dismisses an employee, he must inform the employee and his local employees’ organisation of his intention one week in advance. The employee and his employees’ organisation are then entitled to deliberations with the employer before the summary dismissal is executed. Under these deliberations the employer can explain the reasons for his actions. The employee may demand to have the reasons in writing.

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ResignationAn employee may give notice to terminate his employment, resign. The employee does not have to give a reason for doing so. Such a termi nation is also followed by a notice period. The length of the notice period is explained above.

Note that an employee is obliged to stay with the employer during the notice period unless otherwise agreed. According to Teknikavtalet IF Metall and Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna the employee is liable to pay damages if he or she does not observe the notice period.

It is also possible for employer and employee to reach an agreement that the employment has ended. No resignation or dismissal has then occurred, and no notice period is mandatory.

Rights of Priority for Re-employment An employee made redundant due to shortage of work or, being em-ployed for a fixed term, not given continued employment because of a shortage of work, with a combined length of employment of at least twelve months over the last three years, has rights of priority for re-employment during nine months after the employment ended to any new employment within the operational unit and work covered by the same collective bargaining agreement under which he was previously employed. This right of priority for re-employment is contingent on the employee possessing satisfactory qualifications for the new em-ployment (see above under Shortage of Work).

This means that an employer who wishes to take on new staff may be obliged to first offer the position to a previous employee. This right of priority for re-employment is semi-discretionary. It is possible for the employer and local employees’ organisation to agree on which employ-ees to offer a new position.

If several previous employees have rights of priority for re-employment,

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priority among the employees affected is determined by their individu-al accumulated length of employment.

Before offering the position to an employee, when other previous em-ployees have a stronger priority for re-employment, the employer must negotiate with the local employees’ organisation.

In a similar fashion, part-time staff under certain conditions has prio-rity to available full-time positions in the workplace.

Collectively Agreed Reinforced Right of Priority for Re-employmentIn Teknikavtalet IF Metall there is a collectively agreed reinforced right of priority for re-employment (KFF – kollektivavtalad förstärkt företrädesrätt).

This is of interest if the company considers hiring workers from an agency. Hiring of workers from a temporary agency does not constitute a decision to employ someone as the hired workers are not employed by the company hiring from the agency.

However, where there are workers with rights of priority for re-employ - ment, during a six month period from the termination of employment of the worker with the longest period of notice, the employer has to confer with the local level union before deciding to hire workers from a temporary agency.

If the local employee’s organisation does not explicitly oppose the hiring of temporary workers, the employer can hire workers from temporary agencies at will. If, on the other hand, the local level union opposes the hiring of temporary workers, the employer can decide to either go ahead with the hiring of temporary workers or to employ workers on fixed term contracts or for an indefinite period.

Should the employer choose to hire temporary workers, despite the local level union being against it, the employer has to pay three months

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of wages to each of the workers who would have been re-employed if the employer had chosen to employ instead of hiring temporary workers.

This does not apply where

• thehiringoftemporaryworkersisduetoatime-limitandthetotalworking days of hiring of temporary workers during the aforemen-tioned six month-period do not exceed 30 workers,

• thehiringoftemporaryworkersisnecessarytomaintainproductionduring a period where the employer is carrying out re-employmentof workers, or

• thehiringoftemporaryworkersisduetotheclosingortransferofaplant or part of a plant.

In these cases the employer can hire workers from temporary agencies at will.

If the employer decides to employ instead of hiring temporary workers, the employer has the right to set aside the order of priority of re-employment for a third of the number of workers to be re-employed. The employer also has the right to use very short fixed term contracts in these cases, though not for shorter periods than one work-day. The offer of re-employment can be sent by letter to the workers who have to respond within a short period.

Note that the collectively agreed reinforced right of priority for re- employment only applies to wage earners (Teknikavtalet IF Metall).

Disputes

Invalid Dismissals

If an employment is terminated for personal reasons, the employee or the employees’ organisation can declare the termination invalid in order to have the objective grounds tried in court.

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This will have the effect that the employment is not terminated prior to the final adjudication of the dispute. The notice period will run pending the outcome of the court proceedings. In this way the employ-ment remains unaltered and the notice period can be longer than stated at the time of dismissal.

This in turn means that the employee stays in his or her employment and will continue to work and receive pay and other benefits. Only in extraordinary cases can the employee be suspended from work.

Such a declararation of invalidity must be issued within two weeks after notice of termination and within one week after a summary dismissal.

For summary dismissals only a court of justice can order that the employment shall continue pending final adjudication of the dispute.

However, the above does not apply if notice of termination due to shortage of work is challenged solely on the grounds that the notice of termination constitutes a breach of the rules regarding priority. Thus, if the reason for the notice of termination is shortage of work, the employee can declare the termination invalid only on the grounds that there was no shortage of work. For example, the employee may argue that he should have been relocated instead of given notice of termination.

Damages

After the dismissal of an employee or other alleged infringements of the Employment Protection Act, there can be local and central nego tiations, for example regarding the correctness of a dismissal or compensation for lost income. Where an agreement can not be found, the dispute may be tried by the Labour Court or a county court if the employee is not a member of an employees’ organisation.

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If a court of justice finds that the employer has not complied with the Employment Protection Act, he must pay damages for the mere breach of the Act.

The employer may also have to pay damages covering lost income. If the employee was given notice without objective grounds, he may be entitled to compensation for lost income. Other grounds for compen-sation for lost income may be if notice of termination due to shortage of work was given in breach of the rules regarding priority or employ-ment was given to an employee in violation of the rights of priority for re-employment of an ex-employee.

The damages covering lost income are limited; Section 38 of the Act, according to the length of employment. At most, the employer has to pay the equivalent of 32 months pay. However, these limits should not be used as benchmarks for reaching agreements.

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CAREER READJUSTMENT FOR REDUNDANT EMPLOYEES

For wage earners and salaried employees there are collective agreements regarding career readjustment (redeployment) and severance pay.

Through these career readjustment insurances, resources can be sup-plied to employees given notice of termination due to shortage of work. The purpose is to help the redundant employee to find a new employment. Activities could include shorter educations or other training to facilitate the career readjustment or transition.

For the employer the insurance can make it easier to reach agreements regarding the order of priority, which determines which employees to give notice of termination (turordningsöverenskommelse).

The basis for the redeployment schemes are collective bargaining agreements. The employer pays an insurance fee and the employees’ organisations will act with the employer to evaluate the company’s staffing requirements and needs. Where such needs can not be fulfilled by the application of the statutory order of priority, an agreement regarding the order of priority shall be made.

The agreements and benefits differ between wage earners and salaried employees.

TSL for Wage EarnersFor wage earners the redeployment insurance includes support for career readjustment and a separate redundancy pay.

Career Readjustment

The collective bargaining foundation, Trygghetsfonden TSL, provides

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or finances measures to assist employees whose employments have been terminated due to shortage of work.

The purpose is to facilitate a swift return to employment. The meas-ures can be used for individually shaped redeployment programmes.

The conditions for being entitled to support are that the employee has worked on average at least 16 hours per week for one year at one or more companies covered by the TSL agreement.

There is no minimium age requirement. However, career readjustment support can be given at most up until the month before the employee turns 65.

The employer and the local branch of IF Metall jointly applies for redeployment support.

The employer can withhold the support for an application if the local branch of IF Metall does not reach agreement regarding the order of priority determining which employees to give notice (turordnings-överenskommelse). Such an agreement should be made where the staffing needs of the company can not be satisfied by application of the legal order of priority.

Support for career readjustment is approximately SEK 20 000 per em-ployee and program and is paid by the Trygghetsfonden TSL. Support programs vary in length from one month up to six months. Programs may include evaluating the job market, improvement of skills and personal marketing.

If an employee or an employees’ organisation wishes to declare a notice of termination invalid or seek damages due to an alleged breach of the order of priority, the employee is not eligible for support from TSL. Also, the time limits to declare a notice of termination or claim dam-ages due to the notice of termination is one week from the date when the application was given to TSL.

The local parties can agree beforehand not to draw redeployment sup-port from TSL. In that case the company does not have to pay the fee.

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Redundancy Pay AGB

If certain conditions are met employees made redundant due to a shortage of work are entitled to redundancy pay, AGB. It is a lump sum paid by AFA insurance company on termination of the employment irrespective of any new employment.

It is required that the employee has reached the age of 40 when the employment expires and that he has been employed for no less than five consecutive years at one or more companies covered by the AGB insurance. The employee must not be older than 65.

The sum is approximately SEK 27 000. Between the ages of 50 and 60 the sum increases by certain steps. The highest sum payable is a total of approximately SEK 41 000. Compensation from an unemployment insurance fund is not reduced because AGB is paid.

For more information, please visit www.tsl.se.

Trygghetsrådet for Salaried Employees

Career Readjustment

The collective bargaining foundation, TRR Trygghetsrådet, provides measures to assist employees whose employments have been termi-nated due to shortage of work.

The purpose is to facilitate a swift return to employment. The measures can be used for individually shaped redeployment programmes.

The conditions for being entitled to support are that the employee has worked on average at least 16 hours per week for one year at the same company.

There is no minimium age requirement. However, career readjustment support can be given at most up until the month before the employee turns 65.

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Support programmes vary in length. Each employee gets an individual contact person for advice and counselling to support the employee in finding a new employment. TRR support can include practice work or skills developing education and more. No total spending amount is decided beforehand.

The employer can not withhold the support for an application if the local branch of the employees’ organisation does not reach agreements regarding the order of priority, determining which employees to give notice (turordnings överens kommelse). However, by the Redeployment Agreement the employees’ organisations have an obligation to enter into such an agreement where the staffing needs of the company can not be satisfied by application of the legal order of priority.

The local parties can agree not to draw redeployment support from TRR but instead use other means for redeployment. For such measures an amount of approximately SEK 28 000 can be made available.

Redundancy Pay AGE

If certain conditions are met, employees made redundant due to a shortage of work are entitled to severance pay, AGE.

The objective of AGE is to provide an income level corresponding to 70% of the previous salary including compensation from the unemploy - ment insurance fund.

After 6 months, the compensation level falls to 50%. AGE is payable from 6 months up to 18 months after cessation of employment, depen-ding on the age of the employee.

To be entitled to AGE, the redundant employee must reach the age of 40 not later than on the day when the employment ends and must have had at least five years of continuous employment in the company giving notice. Working hours must have been at least five hours a week. The redundancy must have been due to a work shortage.

For more information, please visit www.trr.se.

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DISCRIMINATION

Most measures against discrimination are found in the Discrimina-tion Act. Other rules prohibiting discrimination can be found in the Parental Leave Act and the Act on Discrimination against Part-time Employees and Fixed Term Employment.

These rules to a large extent derive from European Union Directives implemented in Swedish legislation.

The Discrimination ActThe Discrimination Act has replaced several different Discrimination Acts. There is one Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsman-nen) to enforce it,. The Equality Ombudsman is a government agency.

Grounds of Discrimination

There are seven different grounds of discrimination prohibited in the Discrimination Act. These are discrimination due to

• Sex• Gender identification• Ethnic origin• Religionorbelief• Disability• Sexualorientation• Age

The term discrimination includes direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and instructions to discriminate.

As to the prohibition to discriminate on the ground of age there are some exeptions. An employer will still have the right to use criteria relevant for the work and which can be deemed necessary for the

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employee to be able to fulfil his work duties. One example could be if the work to be performed requires a long in-house educational period. Also, some retirement-, family- and disability benefits in collective bargaining or individual agreements are not covered by the prohibition to discriminate on the ground of age.

By direct discrimination is meant that a person is unfairly treated com-pared to how another person is treated in a comparable situation, if the unfair treatment is connected to that person’s sex, gender identification, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation or age.

Indirect discrimination refers to a person being unfairly treated by the application of a provision, a criteria or procedure that appears to be neutral, but can specifically treat unfairly persons covered by one of the seven grounds of discrimination, unless the provision, criteria or procedure has a legitimate aim and the measures are considered appro-priate and necessary to reach the aim.

By harassment is meant a behaviour which violates a person’s dignity and is connected to that person’s sex, gender identification, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation or age. By sexual harassment is meant sexual behaviour violating someone’s dignity.

By instructions to discriminate is meant orders or instructions to discriminate someone through direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or sexual harassment if such an order or instruction is given to someone who is in a position of obedience or dependency to the person giving the order or instruction or has taken upon him to fulfil a certain task.

Discriminatory Behavior

The Discrimination Act also covers measures against discrimination outside the relationship between the employer and the employee. Those measures are not described here.

For employers, discriminatory behaviour can occur in connection with recruitment, promotion, pay and in practically all instances before and

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during the employment, and of course any measures leading to the termination of the employment.

However, it is not considered discriminatory behaviour if preferential treatment precipitated by a certain personal quality connected to one of the grounds of discrimination is given to a person because of the nature of the work or if the context in which the work is performed constitutes a real and determining job qualification which is legitimate, and this criteria is appropriate and necessary to fulfil the purpose

In general, the employer is free to device his own selection procedures. Discrimi nation occurs only when an employer hires someone despite the fact that another applicant had better qualifications or if the em-ployer has rejected a person with equal qualifications and this behav-iour can be explained by the applicant’s sex, gender identification, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation or age.

An employer must not discriminate against employees, job-seekers or persons performing work place experience or seeking to perform work place experience. The Discrimination Act also covers persons employed by an agency but hired out to the employer, or are on loan from another company. Employers can not deny a person from the agency or other employers on any of the seven discriminatory grounds.

An employer must not subject an employee to reprisals because the employee has filed a complaint or mentioned that the employer has violated the Act, cooperated in an investigation according to the Act or objected to or resigned himself to the employer’s harassments or sexual harassments.

There is a shared burden of proof in cases of discrimination. If the person who claims to have been discriminated against shows circum-stances giving reason to presume that he has been discriminated against or subjected to reprisals, it is then up to the employer to show that there has been no discrimination or reprisals. Thus the employermust show that his behaviour was not affected by the employee’s sex or other protected qualities.

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If an employer receives information that an employee, in connection with the work, regards himself to have been harassed or sexually har-assed by a person working for the employer, the employer has a duty to investigate the circumstances concerning the alleged harassment or sexual harassment. When necessary the employer also must take neces-sary measures to stop further harassments.

By violating the Act an employer may have to pay compensation for the discriminatory behaviour (diskrimineringsersättning).

An agreement with discriminatory content can be declared invalid by a court. But even if a person should win a case where he claims to have been discriminated against, he will not be entitled to the employment, promotion or pay rise etc that did not materialise.

The employer may also be liable to pay compensation for lost income if an employee lost his employment due to discriminatory behaviour. Such compensation is not subject to the limits on damages in the Employment Protection Act.

Active Measures

All seven discrimination grounds are linked to obligations for employers to continuously work with so called active measures. This means that the employer in cooperation with the employees must investigate the working conditions in order to identify risks for discrimination on any of the seven grounds for discrimination and plan for actions to eliminate those risks. Apart from working conditions the investigation shall entail different types of reimbursements and benefits, recruiting and promotion as well as education and skills development and possibilities to combine working life with parenthood.

The employer must document its work with active measures and also describe the way that cooperation with the employees has taken place. Companies with less than 25 employees are exempted from this demand.

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Regarding sex, employers are responsible to perform a pay survey, where pay between male and female employees as groups performing comparable work is compared. Employers are obliged to carry out such surveys every year. Companies with less than 10 employees are exempted.

Active measures include the following four steps:

1. Investigation of whether or not there are any risks for discriminations etc within the organisation.

2. Analysis of any identified risks.3. Take reasonable measures to prevent discrimination on the

basis of the abovementioned investigation.4. Follow up and evaluate the work done in the previous steps.

Preferential Treatment

Regarding sex, preferential treatment can be given to men or women regarding measures aiming to further equal treatment between the sexes. This is possible when the applicants or employees have equal or almost equal qualifications and the preferential treatment is not dis-proportionate compared to the stated objective of the measure.

However, regarding ethnicity preferential treatment is not allowed.

Parental Leave ActAccording to the Parental Leave Act an employer may not treat a job applicant or an employee unfairly for reasons related to parental leave.

In this section, we will only discuss the protection from discrimination due to parental leave. For information regarding the actual leave, please see the section on Time Off.

Unfair treatment (missgynnande) is an act that is negative for the job applicant or employee and is combined with actual loss, unease or similar. Typically unfair treatment can occur if the employer does not

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act as the employer would have or should have done had the employee not used his or her rights according to the Parental Leave Act. A control question to be asked is how the employee would have been treated had the issue of parental leave not existed.

The matters where the prohibition to treat unfairly applies ranges from employment, promotion, transferrals and pay or other terms of employment to managing and distributing work and notices of termination or summary dismissals.

However, this prohibition does not apply if the different terms and conditions or different treatment are a necessary consequence of the leave. One example is that an employee on full parental leave does not receive any salary or wage during the period. That is a necessary conse-quence of the leave.

If an employee is given notice of termination or is summarily dismissed solely for reasons related to parental leave under this Act, the notice of termination or summarily dismissal can be declared invalid, if the employee so requests.

The Equality Ombudsman can act on behalf of employees to protect their rights in the Parental Leave Act.

Part-time Employees and Fixed Term Employment

According to the Act on Discrimination against Part-time Employees and Fixed Term Employment, an employer must not treat part time employees or fixed term employees unfairly regarding pay and other terms of employment compared to how the employer would treat full time employees or staff employed until further notice under similar circumstances.

This includes pay and other terms of employment that appear neutral but in reality treats the protected categories unfairly.

The prohibition does not apply if the employer can show that the unfair treatment is unrelated to the part time or fixed term employ-ment or otherwise can be justified by objective grounds.

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WORKING HOURS

Legal FoundationWorking hours are regulated by statute and in collective bargaining agreements. The basic legal foundations are given in the Working Hours Act. The Act regulates normal working hours, duty periods, on call, overtime and more. Most of the provisions can be altered by col-lective bargaining agreements. Recent changes to the Act has brought it in line with the EU Directive 2003/88/EC on working time regarding average weekly working time, daily rest and night work.

Collective Bargaining AgreementsIt is possible to replace the Working Hours Act with collective bar-gaining agreements, as long as these do not infringe the rights of the employees according to the EU 2003/88/EC Directive on working time. The Act has been replaced almost in its entirety by the Teknikföretagen collective bargaining agreements.

During a calculation period of a calendar year the average working hours, including overtime, per seven day period may not exceed 48 hours. These are the available working hours.

This however, is limited by rules on the regular working hours. Accord-ing to Teknikavtalet IF Metall, regular working hours for a full-time employee on daytime or two-shift work on a Monday to Friday basis is 40 hours per normal working week on average per calendar year. The regular working hours is 38 hours for intermittent three-shift work, 36 hours for continuous three-shift work, 35 hours for continu-ous three-shift work with major public holiday work, and 34 hours for permanent night work.

According to Teknikavtalet IF Metall, the employer and the local em-ployees’ organisation shall reach an agreement on the disposition of

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working hours. Where no agreement is reached, there are provisions in the collective bargaining agreement on the disposition of the working hours for the operational unit, including when the working period begins and ends as well as different shift types.

According to Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna, regular working hours per week without public holidays may not exceed a yearly average of 40 hours for day-time and two-shift work, 38 hours for intermittent three-shift working, 36 hours for continuous three-shift working, 35 hours for continuous three-shift working with work during major public holidays, and 34 hours for permanent night work.

In the abovementioned EU directive a few definitions are given. For clarifying purposes, some of these are included in the collective bar-gaining agreement. Thus, “working time” means any period during which the employee is working, at the employer’s disposal and carry-ing out his activity or duties, in accordance with national laws and/or practice and “rest period” means any period which is not working time.

Further, “shift work” means any method of organising work in shifts whereby employees succeed each other at the same work stations ac-cording to a certain pattern, including a rotating pattern, and which may be continuous or discontinuous, entailing the need for employees to work at different times over a given period of days or weeks. “Shift worker” is any employee whose work schedule is part of shift work. That this definition has been included in the agreement shall not alter the way shift work has been applied previously according to Teknik-avtalet IF Metall.

Daily and Weekly Rest PeriodsUnless otherwise agreed by the local parties, each employee must be given at least eleven hours of continuous rest per 24-hour period,

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calculated from the start of the working shift according to the working hours schedule currently valid for the employee.

Where an employee is not given eleven hours of continuous rest in a 24 hour period, the employee must be given the equivalent compen-sating rest period at the end of the working shift that interrupted the rest period. Otherwise, the employee must be given the equivalent extended rest period within seven calendar days or the remaining time is deposited in the employee’s time bank, see below on Reduction of working hours. This may only occur in extraordinary cases.

By equivalent compensating rest period is understood the difference between 11 hours and the continuous rest period that the employee has received. For example, 3 hours if the continuous rest period in a given 24-hour period is 8 hours. If the rest period during several subsequent 24-hour periods was shorter than 11 hours, the equivalent compensating rest period is the sum of the differences.

Except where otherwise agreed by the local parties, employees shall have an uninterrupted break of at least thirty-five hours during each period of seven days (weekly break). As far as possible, the weekly break should be scheduled during weekends. Temporary exemptions may be made if they are made necessary by some specific situation, which could not be foreseen by the employer.

Reduction of Working hoursTeknikavtalet IF Metall includes a Reduction of Working Hours scheme. For each full week the employee has worked he is entitled to a certain amount of time which is accumulated in a time bank or can be used for a scheduled reduction of working hours. The time in the bank may be used for agreed leave.

Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna also contains a similar Reduction of Working Hours scheme, however not as extensive as the one for wage-earners.

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OtherMany of the rules in the Sections on working hours in the collective bargaining agreements are pay rules regarding compen sation for over-time, duty periods, inconvenient working hours and so on.

The employer must keep a record of duty periods, overtime and excess time, in accordance with the provisions of the Swedish Work Environ-ment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket).

Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna makes it possible to enter into individual agreements with certain categories of employees to exempt them from the right to overtime or travel time compensa-tion. They are then also exempted from the Reduction of Working Hours scheme. Instead, they are compensated by longer annual leave and/or higher salary. Usually, the reason for this exemption is that it is difficult for the employer to supervise how or when they work. These employees are exempted from the employer’s obligation to keep records on overtime.

The Teknikföretagen collective bargaining agreements also provides for use of on-call hours or stand-by duty. On call hours are deemed to be working hours, but not very common among Teknikföretagen member companies. It is also possible to have employees on standby duty. This means that employees are not at work, but are available to perform work for the employer if it becomes necessary. Stand-by duty is not deemed to be working hours, unless work has to be carried out.

As a general rule the employer must inform the employee regarding the disposition of normal working hours and duty hours at least two weeks in advance. Exceptions may be made depending on the type of activity or in the case of an unforeseeable event.

As regards working hours for minors, special rules are laid out in the Work Environment Act (see below) and in special provisions issued by the Swedish Work Environment Authority.

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THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

The Work Environment Act comprises all physical, psychological and social conditions of importance for the work environment and em-phasises the principle that a healthy work environment is best achieved through co-operation between employer and employees.

The Work Environment Act is a generally formulated framework law supplemented by provisions from the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket).

The Swedish Work Environment Authority is the administrative au-thority for questions relating to the working environment. The task of the Work Environment Authority is to verify that the employer lives up to the stipulations made in the Work Environment Act and in the Provisions issued by the Authority itself. This verification is usually based on inspection.

The Work Environment Act places the responsibility for the work envi-ronment with the employer. The employer must ensure that employees are protected from injuries or health hazards. The employer should systematically plan, direct and control activities in such a manner that they promote a good work environment. The employer has a duty to investigate work-related injuries and to regularly investigate the hazards of the operations and take relevant measures. Actions which can not be taken immediately shall be timetabled. The employer should work together with the employees and the employees’ organisations in these matters.

The Systematic Work Environment Management provision regulates the employer’s responsibilities regarding how to investigate, carry out and follow up activities to promote a good work environ ment. Under this provision the employer is obliged to document risks, routines and action plans. The provision also stipulates that the employer has to en-sure that management is well-informed about these matters and knows

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how to allocate tasks. According to this provision, the work environ-ment should be dealt with as a natural part of day-to-day operations.

To make sure that the responsibilities are placed correctly, certain tasks should be delegated to various levels of management. Otherwise the responsibility may rest entirely with the CEO. A valid delegation must involve adequate authority, resources and knowledge. Note that only tasks, not responsibility as such, can be delegated.

Working conditions must be adjusted to each individual’s different preconditions in physical and psychological aspects. The employer has a responsibility to investigate the job adaptation and rehabilitation needs of employees with a reduced ability to work to facilitate their return to work.

The employees, on their side, must take due care and use the appropriate safety arrangements. They must also comply with provisions issued and exercise such other precautions that are needed for the prevention of illness and accidents.

In units with at least five employees or where it is otherwise deemed necessary, a safety delegate (skyddsombud) should be selected among the employees by the employees or the employees’ organisation. ln cer-tain cases, the safety delegate is entitled to inter vene or stop a particu-lar job if it involves an immediate and serious danger to life or health.

If the unit has more than 50 employees, or at the express wish of the employees, a safety committee (skyddskommitté) with representatives from management and employees should be established. The safety committee participates in the planning and follow-up of work environ- ment measures. The safety delegate and employee representatives on the safety committee have the status of trade union representatives (see previous section).

The Act includes provisions on the employment of minors, i.e. adoles-cents under the age of 18 years. Note that there is also a certain provi-sion concerning employment of minors, AFS 1996:01.

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If employers do not comply with the regulations or do not perform their work environment tasks, they may risk being held criminally responsible.

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TIME OFF

Several laws and the collective bargaining agreements entitle employees to take time off from work for various reasons. This ranges from one day leave of absence to celebrate a fiftieth birthday to perhaps years off because of educational leave or parental leave.

In previous sections we have mentioned some reasons for time off, such as agreed leave because of the reduction of working hours scheme and trade union activities. Here we will give an overview of some further reasons for time off.

There are other grounds for time off, but they are of minor signifi-cance and are therefore not mentioned here.

Sick LeaveEmployees who can not work because of reduced work ability due to illness or injury are entitled to sick leave. It is not the actual illness or injury but the reduction in the ability to work that forms the basis of this entitlement. It is possible to be on part-time sick leave if the ability to work is only partially reduced.

During the first fourteen days of the absence period, the employee is entitled to sick pay. Sick pay is paid by the employer and is 80 percent of the employee’s salary or wage. Sick pay is regulated by the Social Security Act. Note, however, that for the first day (known as the waiting period or “karensdag”) the sick pay is zero. Thus no sick pay is payed for the first day of sick leave.

For the period from day fifteen, with several different time limits, sick employees are entitled to sickness benefit, which is paid by the govern-ment according to the National Insurance Act. Sickness benefit is calculated slightly differently from sick pay, and loss of income above a certain level is not compensated for at all.

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According to Teknikavtalet IF Metall and Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveri-ges Ingenjörer/Ledarna, the employee must report sick to his employer as soon as possible. The employee is not entitled to sick pay until such notification has been provided. Furthermore, the employee has to inform the employer when he expects to return to work and provide a self-certification form giving details of his illness.

From day 8 of the sickness absence, the employee must provide a doc-tor’s certificate to be entitled to sick pay. Where there is a valid reason, the employer may require a doctor’s certificate earlier.

The employee is not entitled to sick pay if he provides incorrect or misleading information about circumstances relevant to the sickness absence.

According to Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna employees are entitled to reduced sick pay, thus adding to the sickness benefit, for the time following day 15 of the sickness absence, until day 45 or 90 depending on the length of employment.

Annual LeaveThe right to annual leave and holiday pay is regulated by the Annual Leave Act. The main rules of the Act stipulate that employees are en-titled to five weeks annual leave per year starting from the first year of employment.

The leave year normally begins on April 1. Holiday pay, however, is only paid if it has been earned during the year preceding the leave year. It is possible to let the leave year and earning year coincide.

For employees who begin their employment after August 31, the annual leave entitlement is only five days. There are also reductions in annual leave entitlements for certain short-term employees and for employees who are not subject to daily supervision, for instance home-workers.

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Certain parts of the Annual Leave Act can be superseded by collective agree ments. In the Teknikföretagen collective agreements there are exclusive formulas for calculating holiday pay. Teknikavtalet IF Metall sets out an agreed minimum holiday pay regardless of the wage level of the individual employee. As a reference, according to the Annual Leave Act, holiday pay amounts to twelve percent of the income during the year preceding the leave year.

The general annual leave is normally planned for four continuous weeks between June and August, unless otherwise is agreed. The em-ployer is obliged to negotiate with the local employees’ organisations on the disposition of the general annual leave. Employees should be informed of the results at least two months before the start of the annual leave period.

Furthermore, statutory annual leave may not be scheduled during the period after an employee’s notice of termination without the employ-ee’s consent, unless the notice period exceeds six months. If previously scheduled annual leave coincides with a notice period and the notice of termination is not linked to the employee’s personal behaviour, the employee has the right to cancel the distributed annual leave.

It is possible to give newly employed staff paid annual leave in advance. If the employment is terminated within five years, the advance holiday pay can be deducted from the final salary, if the employee chooses to leave the employment within five years of employment. However, no deduction can be made if the employment is terminated because the employee is sick or because of shortage of work.

The Annual Leave Act specifies how periods of absence or leave can be included in holiday pay calculations. Holiday pay is earned, within certain limits, during sick leave, parental leave, dependency leave, educational leave (in certain cases), and short periods of leave for military reserve duty.

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Annual leave entitlements can be accumulated over several leave years. Employees are entitled to save up paid annual leave (exceeding 20 days) for future use within five years. For those entitled to more than 25 days annual leave, other rules may apply. Subsequently, after five years of saving, the employee can, with some restrictions, be entitled to an annual leave of up to ten consecutive weeks.

Parental Leave and BenefitThe rules on parental leave are given in the Parental Leave Act. Regula-tions on parental benefit are found in the National Insurance Act.

Parental Leave

Parental leave can be with or without parental benefits and on a full time or part-time basis.

A person receiving parental benefit is always entitled to parental leave for the corre sponding period. Regardless of parental benefit, parents (one at a time though) are entitled to full parental leave during the child’s first 18 months and up to one quarter leave until the child is eight years old or has completed the first year at school.

A father may take parental leave for ten days per child in connection with the childbirth during which time he is entitled to temporary parental benefits.

The employee has to confer with the employer regarding the disposi-tion of the leave. This does not apply to temporary parental leave.

Full parental leave can be disposed almost as the employee wishes. Both parents are entitled to divide their leave into a maximum of three periods during each calendar year. In case of full parental leave for a single day, that day can constitute one period. The restriction on the employee’s disposition of full parental leave is that it must be disposed so that the employer’s activities can be carried out with the least pos-

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sible disruption provided this is not inconvenient for the employee.

Part-time parental leave can be distributed throughout the working week, thus reducing the working day, or restricted to one or some days of the working week. If the employer and the employee can not agree on the disposition of part-time parental leave, this should be disposed according to the wishes of the employee, unless this causes operational disruptions. Then the leave should be distributed throughout the working week.

The employee is required to inform the employer two months before his intended leave. Employees have the right to terminate their leave prematurely.

Generally, an individual’s employment conditions may not be altered because he has made use of his legal right to parental leave.

Aspects of the Parental Leave Act concerning unfair treatment of em-ployees exercising their rights according to the Act can be found in the Discrimination section above.

Parental Benefit

Parental benefit can be claimed for a total of 480 days. The parental benefit for the first 390 days is equivalent to the parent’s sickness benefit. This is approximately 80 percent of the wage or salary up to SEK 33 000 per month. Parental benefit is paid by the government. A further 90 days of benefit may be claimed, based on a minimum level guarantee amount, SEK 60 - 180.

A mother may receive parental benefit 60 days prior to the expected date of birth.

After the birth the parents decide who will collect parental benefit, which must be drawn before the child is eight years old or has com-pleted his first school year.

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Each parent has a right to half of the 480 days with parental benefit, but he or she may transfer most of his or her share to the other parent. For each parent 60 days with parental benefit equivalent to sickness benefit are exclusive (so called pappa-månader) and can not be trans-ferred to the other parent.

As is the case with sick pay, income losses above a certain level are not covered by parental benefit. The Teknikavtalet IF Metall and Teknik-avtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna collective bargaining agreements contain rules on parental pay (föräldralön) which may supplement the parental benefit for a maximum period of four months.

Temporary Parental Benefit

Besides the regular parental benefit, temporary parental benefit can be paid when nursing a sick child under the age of 12. Temporary parental benefit is paid by the government for up to 120 days per child per year.

A prerequisite for temporary parental leave is that the employee is entitled to temporary parental benefit. A typical situation would be when the parent has to be away from work when nursing a sick child.

Compassionate LeaveCompassionate leave is time off with pay for no more than one day normally and is exhaustively regulated in Teknikavtalet IF Metall. Compassionate leave is granted upon request in the following situations: employee’s own wedding, employee’s own 50th anniversary, death and/or funeral of close relative or dependant, and severe illness of a close relative or dependant living in the employee’s household as a member of the family. In connection with the funeral of a close relative, the em-ployee may be given up to two additional days for travel.

Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna does not fully regulate all situations when compassionate leave may be granted.

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The employer should aim to apply the same rules for all employees, regardless of which collective bargaining agreement is applicable.

Leave of AbsenceThe employer is obliged to grant leave of absence only when the time off is a statutory right, such as parental or educational leave.

Thus, the employee has no right to leave of absence in other cases, such as travel or to pursue a hobby. It is entirely up to the employer whether to grant such a leave, which is then known as agreed leave of absence.

Where the employee due to illness has had a reduced ability to work for three months, he or she may have a legal right to leave in order to try another employment. Otherwise there is no general right for em-ployees to leave to try another employment.

Below are explained some other more occurring legal rights to leave of absence.

Training and EducationAll employees have a legal right to educational leave according to the Employees’ Right to Educational Leave Act. It is up to the employee to decide on the field of study, but it is crucial that the training is me-thodical and that its main purpose is to promote knowledge. Neither pure hobby activities nor political or opinion-forming activities give any right to leave. In certain respects, trade union related studies are given priority.

The right to take educational leave begins after a qualification period of six months of employment or a total of twelve months over the past two years with the current employer.

The employer has the right to postpone a requested leave for up to six months. The employer does not have to pay wages or social benefits

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during the educational leave. However, the employee may obtain some compen sation for loss of income through various government grants.

The local employees’ organisation is at liberty to encourage members in the workplace to study.

Dependency LeaveEmployees have the right to time off for taking care of a seriously ill relative or dependant. The right is extended to include not only family but persons with whom the employee has a personal relation.

Employees are entitled to leave only if they are eligible for the specific benefit, which is paid by the government. The right to remuneration is tried by the social insurance office. Generally, the benefit may be paid for up to 60 days, with the exception of cases regarding HIV, which entitles to 240 days of benefit.

Conducting a Business OperationAccording to the Right to Leave to Conduct a Business Operation Act an employee is entitled to take full leave for six months in order to conduct a business operation. The business operation can be run either by the employee himself or by a legal entity.

The leave must not cause significant inconvenience for the operation of the employer and must not compete with the employer’s business interests.

The right to take leave to conduct a business operation begins after a qualification period of six months employment or a total of twelve months over the past two years with the current employer. The employee is required to inform the employer three months before his intended leave.

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EMPLOYEES’ INVENTIONS

Companies invest a lot of time and money on developing methods and products. In some cases, the company may wish to take out a patent arising from employees’ research and development work.

The right of ownership to inventions made during employment or through the use of company know-how and resources and the right to reasonable remuneration are regulated by law.

Salaried employees are also covered by the Agreement concerning the right to employees’ inventions. The full Agreement is available in the Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna collective bar-gaining agreement. Both agreement and law apply only to patentable inventions.

The Agreement grants the employer a greater right to inventions than does the law. The agreement also contains some general guidelines regarding the calculation of remuneration, while the law only stipulates that the employee has a right to “reasonable” remuneration.

Occasionally it may be reasonable and in the company’s interest to remunerate employees for inventions they make. This is particularly relevant when the invention has arisen as a sideline to the employee’s normal work tasks or if the value of the invention is very high. This evaluation must take into account what the salaried employee is employed to do and his terms of employment. An engineer at a devel-opment unit is employed to make inventions.

Disputes over the application of the Agreement may, as a last resort, be settled in an arbitrational tribunal.

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DISPUTE RESOLUTION

As there are many laws and collective bargaining agreements, it is to be expected that the employer and employees will at times have diverging views on the application of these rules.

If a legal dispute or dispute of interest arises relating to the terms of employment or the general relationship between the employer and the employees’ organisation, negotiations are to be conducted according to the methods and procedures set out in Teknikavtalet IF Metall and Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna.

A legal dispute is a dispute where the initiating party is claiming pay, a benefit or an application of a provision based on a legal rule or a rule in an agreement. A dispute of interest is where the initiating party wants something from his opponent, but there is no legal or previously agreed foundation for the claim.

For employees not members of an employees’ organisation other rules on dispute resolution apply, see below.

Negotiation procedureIn Teknikavtalet IF Metall the negotiating procedure is set out in Section 1. Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna also includes a negotiating procedure.

Local and Central Negotiations

Negotiations are first conducted at a local level between the employer and the employees’ organisation, the local parties. This is the local negotiation. If there is no local employee’s organisation, the employees may be represented by the regional branch of the employee’s organisa-tion (avdelning/region).

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If no agreement can be reached, each party can bring the negotiation to the central level, the central negotiation by the central parties. This negotiation normally takes place at the company by the central parties, that is Teknikföretagen and one of the union counterparts, IF Metall, Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer or Ledarna.

Request for local negotiation

If a legal dispute arises relating to declaring invalid a termination of employment or summary dismissal the party that wishes to pursue that matter should request local negotiations no later than two weeks after the termination or summary dismissal. Otherwise the party has lost his right to negotiate in the matter.

In other legal disputes, local negotiations must be requested no later than four months after the circumstances underlying the dispute may be deemed to have been brought to the attention of the party request-ing negotiations. Otherwise the party has lost his right to negotiate in the matter. In all circumstances the right to negotiate is lost if more than two years has passed after the facts that form the basis of the dispute came about.

Regarding Teknikavtalet IF Metall, in the case of undisputed wages due for payment or other remuneration, the statutory ten year time limita-tion applies instead of the above.

Request for central negotiation

If local negotiations do not lead to a settlement the party that wishes to pursue the dispute further must request a central negotiation. In disputes relating to declaring invalid a termination of employment or summary dismissal, the request for central negotiations should reach the other party no later than two weeks from the date the local nego-tiation was concluded.

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After local negotiations according to Section 11 and 12 of the Co-De-termination Act (see above) a request must reach the employer no later than two weeks from the date the local negotiations were concluded.

In other disputes the request for central negotiation must be made no later than two months from the date the local negotiation was con-cluded. Otherwise the right to negotiate in the matter is lost.

If a request for negotiation has been made, the negotiations must be held as soon as possible and no later than three weeks after the request unless a longer time is agreed.

Local or central negotiations are concluded once the parties agree on this or once one party serves notice on the other that he considers the negotiations terminated. Termination of negotiations is not dependent on signed minutes if agreement to terminate them is reached. A note of when the negotiations were terminated should be entered into the minutes.

Legal Consequences of the Negotiating Procedure

As a general rule, the employer and employees’ organisation may not take any legal or other measures in relation to the dispute before nego-tiations according to the rules on the negotiating procedure have been concluded.

Loss of Right to Negotiate – Period of Limitation

It is very important to observe the time limits in the negotiating proce-dure, as these may stop the other party from bringing proceedings in a court. Therefore the employer must observe the time limits and, if so, declare that the employees’ organisation has lost its right to negotiate as soon as possible.

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A party that has lost its right to negotiate in accordance with the provi-sions of the negotiating procedure is barred from taking any further action in regard to the dispute.

Proceedings in Court or Arbitration

A party wishing to further pursue a legal dispute once the negotiations are terminated must bring proceedings to a court, normally the Labour Court.

In a dispute relating to declaring termination of employment or summary dismissal invalid, proceedings must be brought within two weeks from the date the central negotiations were concluded. In other disputes proceeding must be brought within four months.

If proceedings are not brought within these periods the party has lost its case.

If it could have been possible to try and solve the dispute through negotiations but this was not tried or the right to negotiate is lost, then the Labour Court is not able to allow the proceedings. This is to uphold the principle of trying to solve disputes speedily through negotiations.

Not all disputes may be solved through court proceedings. Disputes re-lating to the application of the wage and salary agreements in Teknik-avtalet IF Metall and Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/Ledarna for example can only be brought to the wage or salary council for final settlement. This counsel consists of Teknikföretagen and the respective union counterpart.

Likewise disputes relating to the provisions on working hours in Teknik- avtalet IF Metall and Teknikavtalet Unionen/Sveriges Ingenjörer/ Ledarna may only be referred to a Working Hours board for final decision.

86

Please consult the collective bargaining agreements or contact Teknikföretagen for further details on the negotiating procedure or right to bring proceedings in court or arbitration.

Employees not Members of an Employees’ OrganisationThose employees not members of any employees’ organisation are not bound by any negotiating procedure. Therefore it is more common that these employees bring proceedings in county courts as a means to solve a dispute with the employer. Note that these proceedings are not brought to the Labour Court. However, after a ruling in the county court, appeals can be made to the Labour Court. The Labour Court may then allow the case to be heard also in the Labour Court.

In disputes relating to declaring a termination of employment or summary dismissal invalid, the employee must bring proceedings no later than two weeks from the date the of the termination or summary dismissal.

If the employee seeks damages for wrongful dismissal proceedings must be brought within 8 months.

If proceedings are not brought within these periods, the employee has lost his case. Therefore it is important to look carefully at the time limits.

For many claims the time limit is the statutory ten years for employees who are not members of an employees’ organisation, as these employ-ees are not covered by the negotiation procedure and time limits in the collective bargaining agreements.

87

VOCABULARY English–Swedish

A

absence frånvaro

absence due to sickness sjukfrånvaro

absentee frånvarande (om anställd)

adequate rest tillräcklig vila

agreement on employment for practical experience överenskommelse om praktikanställning

agreement on order of priority turordningsöverenskommelse

agreement on working hours arbetstidsavtal

Annual Leave Act semesterlagen

appeal (to a court) (against a ruling/judgement) överklaga

application ansökan

apprentice lärling

arbitration skiljedom

arbitration proceedings skiljedomsförfarande

arbitrational tribunal skiljedomstol

B

benefit förmån

blockade blockad

boycott bojkott

breach of contract kontraktsbrott

88

Ccareer readjustment omställning

collective bargaining agreement kollektivavtal

compassionate leave permission

consultation, deliberation överläggning

co-operation agreement samarbetsavtal

cutback (in production) driftsinskränkning

daily rest period dygnsvila

D

damages, compensation (claim ~) skadestånd (begära ~)

declare invalid ogiltigförklara

disadvantaged missgynnad

discretionary dispositiv

discrimination diskriminering

dismissal due to shortage of work uppsägning pga arbetsbrist

dismissal, notice of termination (resignation) uppsägning (egen ~)

disposition of working hours arbetstidsförläggning

dispute tvist

dispute (settle a ~) konflikt (avgöra en ~)

89

E

educational/study leave studieledighet

employee anställd

employees’ inventions anställdas uppfinningar

employer arbetsgivare

employment (begin, during, end/terminate) anställning (påbörja, under, avsluta)

Employment

(Co-Determination in the Workplace) Act MBL

employment agency/bureau bemanningsföretag

employment benefit anställningsförmån

employment conditions or terms anställningsvillkor

employment contract anställningsbevis

Employment Protection Act Anställningsskyddslagen, LAS

employment/labour law arbetsrätt

equal opportunity/opportunities jämställdhet

forced arbitration tvångsskiljedom

F

fixed-term contract/employment visstidsanställning

full time heltid

full timer heltidsarbetare

G

give notice (to somebody), dismiss säga upp (ngn)

grant bevilja

group life insurance TGL

group sickness insurance AGS

90

Hharassment trakasseri

holiday allowance semesterersättning

holiday pay semesterlön

holiday, annual leave semester

home based work hemarbete (jfr distansarbete)

hour worker timlönearbetare

hours of work, working hours (normal ~) arbetstid (ordinarie ~)

Iinconvenient hours obekväm arbetstid

indefinite term contract, employment until further notice tillsvidareanställning

industrial action stridsåtgärd

industrial relations arbetsgivarfrågor

insurance premium försäkringspremie

inventions (employees’ ~) uppfinningar (anställdas ~)

K

kitty (wage or salary ~) lönepott

Llay-off permittering

leave of absence tjänstledighet

leave/holiday year semesterår

legal precedence rättspraxis

length/period/years of employment/service anställningsperiod/tid

loss of right of action preskription

91

M

membership dues inkassering av medlemsavgifter

minimum wage lägsta lön

N

negotiate förhandla

negotiation förhandling

non-competitive clause konkurrensklausul

notice of termination uppsägningsbesked

O

objective grounds saklig grund

obligation to inform informationsplikt

obligation to negotiate förhandlingsskyldighet

occupational supplementary pension to ITP ITPK

offer for transferral omplaceringserbjudande

on call (duty) jour

opening clause öppningsklausul

operational unit driftsenhet

order of priority Turordning

overtime övertid

overtime payment övertidsersättning

92

Pparental benefit (temporary ~) föräldrapenning (tillfällig ~)

parental leave föräldraledighet

Parental Leave Act föräldraledighetslag

part time (work ~) deltid (arbeta ~)

part timer deltidare

pay claim lönekrav

pay deal löneöverenskommelse

pay negotiation löneförhandling

pay principles löneprinciper

pay, wage, salary (wages/salary due) lön (innestående ~)

payment, remuneration ersättning

payroll issues lönefrågor

peace obligation fredsplikt

period of notice uppsägningstid

Personal Data Ordinance Personuppgiftslagen PuL

personal reasons personliga skäl

piece work ackordslönearbete

piece worker ackordslönearbetare

piecework wages ackordslön

plant driftsenhet

post-employment cover efterskydd (i avtalsförsäkring)

posting of workers utstationering av utländsk arbetskraft

premium (insurance ~) premie (försäkrings~)

production stoppage(s) driftsstopp

Public Employment Service Arbetsförmedlingen

public holiday helgdag

93

R re-instatement (samma jobb), re-engagement (samma eller liknande jobb) återanställning

redundancy övertalighet

redundancy or severance pay(ment) avgångsersättning

redundancy pay(ment) uppsägningslön

reduction of working hours scheme arbetstidsförkortning

relocate omplacera

resign säga upp sig

resignation egen uppsägning

rest (adequate ~) vila (tillräcklig ~)

right of association föreningsrätt

right of priority for re-employment företrädesrätt till återanställning

S

safety representative skyddsombud

SAF-LO collective pension avtalspension (SAF-LO)

salaried employee, white-collar employee tjänsteman

salary review löneöversyn

salary/wages due, back-pay innestående lön section paragraf (i lagar/avtal), avsnitt el. stycke (i text)

set-off kvittning

severance compensation (for salaried employees) AGE

severance pay (for wage-earners) AGB

shift working skiftarbete

shift-type supplement skiftformstillägg

shortage of work arbetsbrist

sick benefit (by government) sjukpenning

94

sick pay (by company) sjuklön

sickness-benefit qualifying income SGI

stand by (duty) beredskap

strike strejk

subsistence allowance traktamente

summary dismissal avskedande

supervision handledning

supervisor arbetsledare

supplementary pension for salaried employees in industry and commerce ITP

supportive (industrial) action sympatiåtgärd

systematic work environment management systematiskt arbetsmiljöarbete

T

teleworking or home work distansarbete

temporary agency worker bemanningspersonal

termination of employment upphörande av anställning

termination/dismissal for personal reasons uppsägning pga personliga skäl

the National Mediation Office Medlingsinstitutet

the Swedish Labour Court Arbetsdomstolen

time bank (withdraw from the ~) tidbank (ta ut från ~)

time off, leave ledighet

trade union activities facklig verksamhet

trade union or employee’s organisation fackförbund

trade union representative facklig förtroendeman

Trade Union Representatives (Status at the Workplace) Act förtroendemannalagen

trade union right of interpretation tolkningsföreträde

training and development kompetensutveckling

95

transfer (to another post) omplacering

transfer of undertaking övergång av verksamhet

transferee köpare (vid övergång av verksamhet)

transferor säljare (vid övergång av verksamhet)

travelling time restid

U

unemployment insurance arbetslöshetsförsäkring

unemployment insurance fund (UIF) Arbetslöshetskassa

W

wage or salary kitty lönepott

wage protection löneskydd

wage-earner, blue-collar worker arbetare

weekly break veckovila

Work Environment Act arbetsmiljölag

work incapacity/incapacity to work arbetsoförmåga

work injury insurance TFA

work outside the plant arbete utom verkstaden

Working Hours Act arbetstidslag

working hours standard arbetstidsmått

working hours reduction scheme arbetstidsförkortning

written warning skriftlig varning

96

97

VOCABULARY Swedish–English

Aackordslön piecework wages

ackordslönearbetare piece worker

ackordslönearbete piece work

AGB severance pay (for wage-earners)

AGE severance compensation (for salaried employees)

AGS group sickness insurance

anställd employee

anställdas uppfinningar employees’ inventions

anställning (påbörja, under, avsluta) employment (begin, during, end/terminate)

anställningsbevis employment contract

anställningsförmån employment benefit

anställningsperiod/tid length/period/years of employment/service

Anställningsskyddslagen, LAS Employment Protection Act

anställningsvillkor employment conditions or terms

ansökan application

arbetare wage-earner, blue-collar worker

arbete utom verkstaden work outside the plant

arbetsbrist shortage of work

Arbetsdomstolen the Swedish Labour Court

98

Arbetsförmedlingen Public Employment Service

arbetsgivare employer

arbetsgivarfrågor industrial relations

arbetsledare supervisor

arbetslöshetsförsäkring unemployment insurance

arbetslöshetskassa unemployment insurance fund (UIF)

arbetsmiljölag Work Environment Act

arbetsoförmåga work incapacity/incapacity to work

arbetsrätt employment/labour law

arbetstid (ordinarie ~) hours of work, working hours (normal ~)

arbetstidsavtal agreement on working hours

arbetstidsförkortning reduction of working hours scheme

arbetstidsförkortning working hours reduction scheme

arbetstidsförläggning disposition of working hours

arbetstidslag Working Hours Act

arbetstidsmått working hours standard

avgångsersättning redundancy or severance pay(ment)

avskedande summary dismissal

avtalspension (SAF-LO) SAF-LO collective pension

Bbemanningsföretag employment agency/bureau

bemanningspersonal temporary agency worker

beredskap stand by (duty)

bevilja grant

blockad blockade

bojkott boycott

99

D

deltid (arbeta ~) part time (work ~)

deltidare part timer

diskriminering discrimination

dispositiv discretionary

distansarbete teleworking or home work

driftsenhet operational unit, plant

driftsinskränkning cutback (in production)

driftsstopp production stoppage(s)

dygnsvila daily rest period

E

efterskydd (i avtalsförsäkring) post-employment cover

egen uppsägning resignation

ersättning payment, remuneration

F

fackförbund trade union or employee’s organisation

facklig förtroendeman trade union representative

facklig verksamhet trade union activities

fredsplikt peace obligation

frånvarande (om anställd) absentee

frånvaro absence

föreningsrätt right of association

företrädesrätt till återanställning right of priority for re-employment

förhandla negotiate

förhandling negotiation

100

förhandlingsskyldighet obligation to negotiate

förmån benefit

försäkringspremie insurance premium

förtroendemannalagen Trade Union Representatives (Status at the Workplace) Act

föräldraledighet parental leave

föräldraledighetslag Parental Leave Act

föräldrapenning (tillfällig ~) parental benefit (temporary ~)

Hhandledning supervision

helgdag public holiday

heltid full time

heltidsarbetare full timer

hemarbete (jfr distansarbete) home based work

Iinformationsplikt obligation to inform

inkassering av medlemsavgifter membership dues

innestående lön salary/wages due, back-pay

ITP supplementary pension for salaried employees in industry and commerce

ITPK occupational supplementary pension to ITP

Jjour on call (duty)

jämställdhet equal opportunity/opportunities

101

K

kollektivavtal collective bargaining agreement

kompetensutveckling training and development

konflikt (avgöra en ~) dispute (settle a ~)

konkurrensklausul non-competitive clause

kontraktsbrott breach of contract

kvittning set-off

köpare (vid övergång av verksamhet) transferee

L

ledighet time off, leave

lägsta lön minimum wage

lärling apprentice

lön (innestående ~) pay, wage, salary (wages/salary due)

lönefrågor payroll issues

löneförhandling pay negotiation

lönekrav pay claim

lönepott wage or salary kitty/pool

löneprinciper pay principles

löneskydd wage protection

löneöverenskommelse pay deal

löneöversyn salary review

M

MBL Employment (Co-Determination in the Workplace) Act

Medlingsinstitutet the National Mediation Office

missgynnad disadvantaged

102

Oobekväm arbetstid inconvenient hours

ogiltigförklara declare invalid

omplacering transfer (to another post) /relocate

omplaceringserbjudande offer for transferral

omställning career readjustment

Pparagraf (i lagar/avtal), avsnitt el. stycke (i text) section

permission compassionate leave

permittering lay-off

personliga skäl personal reasons

Personuppgiftslagen PuL Personal Data Ordinance

premie (försäkrings~) premium (insurance ~)

preskription loss of right of action

Rrestid travelling time

rättspraxis legal precedence

Ssaklig grund objective grounds

samarbetsavtal co-operation agreement

semester holiday, annual leave

semesterersättning holiday allowance

semesterlagen Annual Leave Act

semesterlön holiday pay

103

semesterår leave/holiday year

SGI sickness-benefit qualifying income

sjukfrånvaro absence due to sickness

sjuklön sick pay (by company)

sjukpenning sick benefit (by government)

skadestånd (begära ~) damages, compensation (claim ~)

skiftarbete shift working

skiftformstillägg shift-type supplement

skiljedom arbitration

skiljedomsförfarande arbitration proceedings

skiljedomstol arbitrational tribunal

skriftlig varning written warning

skyddsombud safety representative

strejk strike

stridsåtgärd industrial action

studieledighet educational/study leave

sympatiåtgärd supportive (industrial) action

systematiskt arbetsmiljöarbete systematic work environment management

säga upp (ngn) give notice (to somebody), dismiss

säga upp sig resign

säljare (vid övergång av verksamhet) transferor

T

TFA work injury insurance

TGL group life insurance

tidbank (ta ut från ~) time bank (withdraw from the ~)

tillräcklig vila adequate rest

104

tillsvidareanställning indefinite term contract, employment until further notice

timlönearbetare hour worker

tjänsteman salaried employee, white-collar employee

tjänstledighet leave of absence

tolkningsföreträde trade union right of interpretation

trakasseri harassment

traktamente subsistence allowance

turordning order of priority

turordningsöverenskommelse agreement on order of priority

tvist dispute

tvångsskiljedom forced arbitration

Uuppfinningar (anställdas ~) inventions (employees’ ~)

upphörande av anställning termination of employment

uppsägning (egen ~) dismissal, notice of termination (resignation)

uppsägning pga arbetsbrist dismissal due to shortage of work

uppsägning pga personliga skäl termination/dismissal for personal reasons

uppsägningsbesked notice of termination

uppsägningslön redundancy pay(ment)

uppsägningstid period of notice

utstationering av utländsk arbetskraft posting of workers

Vveckovila weekly break

vila (tillräcklig ~) rest (adequate ~)

visstidsanställning fixed-term contract/employment

105

Å

återanställning re-instatement (samma jobb), re-engagement (samma eller liknande jobb)

Ö

öppningsklausul opening clause

överenskommelse om praktikanställning agreement on employment for practical experience

övergång av verksamhet transfer of undertaking

överklaga appeal (to a court) (against a ruling/judgement)

överläggning consultation, deliberation

övertalighet redundancy

övertid overtime

övertidsersättning overtime payment

106

SWEDISH LABOUR-RELATED LEGISLATION

This is an overview of the Swedish labour legislation mentioned above, but it is not an exhaustive listing. The legislation can be found at www.sweden.gov.se.

ENgLISh SWEDISh

Employment Protection Act Lagen om anställningsskydd, LAS

EMPLOyEES’ ORgANISATIONS

Board Representation (Private Sector Employees) Act Lag om styrelserepresentation för de privatanställda

Employment (Co-Determination in the Workplace) Act Lagen m medbestämmande i arbetslivet ( MBL)

Trade Union Representatives (Status at the Workplace) Act

Lagen om facklig förtroendeställ- ning på arbetsplatsen (förtroendemannalagen)

DISCRIMINATION

Discrimination Act Diskrimineringslagen

Act on Discrimination against Part-time Employees and Fixed Term Employment

Lag om förbud mot diskriminering av deltidsarbetande arbetstagare och arbets- tagare med tidsbegränsad anställning

Parental Leave Act Föräldraledighetslag

107

RIghT TO TIME OFF

Annual Leave Act Semesterlag

Employee’s Right to Educational Leave Act Lag om arbetstagares rätt till ledighet för utbildning (studieledighetslagen)

Parental Leave Act Föräldraledighetslag

Right to Leave to Conduct a Business Operation Act Lag om rätt till ledighet för att bedriva näringsverksamhet

Dependency Leave Lag om rätt till ledighet av trängande familjeskäl

Compassionate Leave Act Lag om ersättning och ledighet för närståendevård

Lag om rätt till ledighet för att på grund av sjukdom prova annat arbete

MISCELLANEOuS

Act on Measures to Promote Employment Lagen om vissa anställnings- främjande åtgärder (Främjandelagen)

Right to Employees Inventions Act Lag om rätten till arbetstagares- uppfinningar

National Insurance Act Socialförsäkingsbalken

Labour Disputes (Judicial Procedure) Act Lag om rättegången i arbetstvister

Social Security Act Socialförsäkringsbalken

Working Hours Act Arbetstidslag

Work Environment Act Arbetsmiljölag

www.teknikforetagen.se

A Short Introduction to Swedish Labour Law concerns the general aspects of labour legislation and Teknikföretagen collective bargaining agreements.

We explain the contents of the Co-determination Act and the Employ-ment protection Act, especially the reasons for terminating an employ-ment. We also explain the possibilities for redeployment of redundant employees. There is information regarding the regulation of working hours, the working environment, discrimination and reasons to leave of absence. We also introduce the social partners relevant to Teknikföreta-gen member companies.

Companies with specific problems can also refer to other information from Teknikföretagen. The Employer’s guide at www.teknikforetagen.se has a rich supply of further information in English. please contact our helpline at 08-782 08 80 for further information and advice.