LAS is the Swedish Employment Protection Act
As of the 1st of October 2022, there are updates and changes to the 'LAS', (Lagen om anställningsskydd). Here the HR advisory company, FEMHR has listed the most important changes in the Protection act.
For you as an employer, the new LAS comes with some improvements lowering the risks of employing people. Your possibility to circumvent LAS proper order for the shortage of work is improved and it is easier to terminate people who do not behave.
General definite term turns into 'special definite' term of employment
The change of the definite term contract is not only a change of name but more an increase of comfort and safety for employees. A person on a definite term contract has priority to permanent employment after 9 months compared to before when it was 12 months.
If a person is on a definite term contract of 12 months or more over a five-year period, the contract turns into a permanent contract after 12 months. This was 24 months before the change which is effective by October 1st.
Will it be easier to terminate contracts?
New LAS is changing the terminology from ”saklig grund” (factual basis) to "särskilda skäl" (special reasons) when an employer is terminating the contract of an employee. This is a change in wording and the question is how the change will look in practice. Legally skilled people are speculating that the focus will move from the situation of the employed to the breach of contract. This change therefore may ease up the difficulty in terminating people who do misbehave in their work duties.
Employment is full-time if nothing else has been agreed
The base for employment is default set to full-time. If you want the employees to work less than full-time you need to clearly write this in the contract. If an employee is less than full-time, the employee has the right to a written explanation as to why.
Employment ending due to dispute
If a dispute is arising between employers and employees in connection to the termination of the contract, the employer has no obligation to pay salary after the employment has been terminated. Before this change, the employer was obliged to pay salary during the full trial period. If the verdict is to the employee's benefit, the employer will need to pay salary for the full period retroactively from the last day of employment (when the last salary was paid).
Temporary agency work
If you have staff in your company who are from a staffing company, the updates in LAS indicate that if this staff has been working for your company for 2 years or more within 3 years, this person should be offered permanent employment. A condition for this is that the person has been based in the same operating unit for the full period. If the employer does not offer permanent employment, the employer will need to pay a fee corresponding to 2 months' salary.
Are you an employer in Sweden and need assistance on an HR-related matter? We warmly recommend Jessica, Charlotte & Hanna at FEMHR
