Dismissal protection law

To understand protection against (unlawful) dismissal, it is first necessary to illuminate the concepts of employee and employment contract. Swedish labour law lacks a definition of the term employee . Although the main law governing the 

Employment contracts are not subject to ary particular form. Mandatory requirements include, inter alia, a precise workplace description as well as the clarification whether the contract is fixed-term or permanent. Employees must also be informed of the collective agreements applicable to their contract. Moreover, employees with term contracts must be notified by the employer in writing if permanent jobs become available in the enterprise. 

A dismissal without a personal background must be objectively justified. This already fails to be the case if the employee could be offered another post within the enterprise. 

The most frequent objective reason for a routine dismissal in practice is lack of work (arbetsbrist). The decision on who is to be dismissed in the event of operational redundancies must be based on the so-called order of succession (turordning), which refers to the legally regulated order of employment contracts that is to be observed upon dismissal. The rule is last hired - first fired (i.e. last in - first out, LIFO). 

4 Special provisions apply to seasonal workers and short-term jobs. 

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In 2006, 393 complaints were fded with the Labour Court, 44 of which concerned disputes in connection with dismissal protection law. 

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