New case law – Case concerning dismissal due to conduct that breaches trust (Data breach) (AD 2026 No 42)

The question was whether the Police Authority had legal grounds to dismiss, or at least objective reasons to terminate the employment of, a police officer who had been convicted of four counts of computer intrusion. The computer intrusions involved unauthorized access to the Police Authority’s IT systems in a case in which the police officer himself and his son were the complainants. The dispute also concerned whether the Police Authority, in addition to the alleged criminal conduct, was permitted to invoke additional circumstances not explicitly stated in the written justification provided pursuant to Section 19 of the Employment Protection Act as grounds for the dismissal. In this regard, the Labor Court found that the additional circumstances the Police Authority sought to invoke could not be considered so closely related to the alleged criminal conduct that they could be invoked as an additional ground for dismissal.

The Labor Court found no reason to question the conviction for computer intrusion. According to the Labor Court, the police officer’s conduct was reckless and reprehensible. However, given that the computer intrusion was committed under very unusual circumstances and in a difficult situation, the court found that the conduct was not so serious as to constitute sufficient grounds for dismissal. The Labor Court further determined that there were no objective grounds for termination either. The Labor Court has therefore declared the dismissal invalid.

Since the data breaches were of such a nature that they would normally constitute grounds for the dismissal of a police officer, and since the police officer’s conduct contributed significantly to the situation that arose, the Labor Court set the general damages for the unjustified dismissal at a lower amount than usual.

Read more here (Swedish).