A. EMPLOYER POLICY REQUIREMENTS
In order to be legally compliant, employers are required by legislation to create and implement a number of employment policies. The following are required policies for an organization commencing work in Sweden:
- a written occupational health and safety policy;
- a policy containing guidelines and routines to prevent harassment, sexual harassment and retaliatory measures in your organization;
- a policy containing routines for first aid and crisis support;
- a policy with routines concerning rehabilitation and work adjustments for when the employees turn ill, or suffer from injury or other conditions, including the abuse of alcohol and drugs;
- a policy with routines concerning chemical work hazards;
- a policy with routines concerning the introduction and guidance for the minor employees in your organization; and
- a policy with security routines within your organization.
There are a number of policies that employers should create. These policies will help an organization manage employee relations and mitigate the risk of legal liability in the future.
- a general discrimination policy concerning the prevention of discrimination in your organization;
- a whistleblowing policy;
- a general policy concerning misconduct with routines on how your organization handles employee misconduct;
- a policy governing the accessibility for employees or other persons with disabilities;
- policies governing attendance, work hours and leave of absence such as annual leave, parental leave and sick leave to manage the expectations of attendance and leave of absence in your organization;
- a policy concerning the processing of employees’ and customers’ personal data; and
- a policy concerning the usage of employer property (computers, phones, internet and social media etc.) to assure employee awareness of your organization’s expectations surrounding the usage of such property.
Having an employee manual is not a statutory requirement in Sweden, but we do recommend employers to collect all applicable policies in one employee manual. This is a practical way for employers to make the policies visible and easily accessible for the employees. Preferably, the employee manual can be kept digitally on your organization’s intranet.
We would be pleased to assist your organization with drafting and adopting the abovementioned policies.
B. EMPLOYEE TRAINING REQUIREMENTS
Employers are required to complete certain training activities. The following is statutorily mandated training that employers must provide:
- training to ensure knowledge concerning occupational health and safety for managers, supervisors, safety representatives and other employees;
- training to ensure knowledge for the managers and supervisors relating to unhealthy workloads and victimization within your organization;
- training and human resources development to prevent discrimination and promote an even gender breakdown at the workplace;
- training to ensure knowledge concerning rehabilitation and work adjustments for the people responsible for tasks related to this;
- training for employees concerning violence and threats to ensure that your employees can perform their work safely;
- training to ensure that employees have sufficient knowledge concerning ergonomics related to the work;
- training concerning management of work that may imply exposure to hazardous chemical products; and
- training to ensure that some of your employees can perform first aid and have adequate knowledge in crisis support.
C. EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS
An employment agreement does not have to be in writing to be valid in Sweden. In fact, an employment agreement does not have to take any specific form. However, we always recommend that written employment agreements are entered into with all employees. Also, Sweden has implemented the directive on an employer’s obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship. As a result of this, the employer must provide certain information in writing concerning the principal terms of the employment, such as duties and title, commencement date, place of work, form of employment, period of notice etc. This information must be provided to the employee within one month of the commencement of the employment.
Our firm has vast experience with drafting and negotiating employment agreements, including executive agreements, incentive agreements and collective agreements.