New case law – case regarding information requirements and whether a collective bargaining agreement has been entered into (AD 2026 nr 55)

The question is whether an employer, who is not party to a collective agreement, has breached the duty to provide information under Section 19a of the Co-determination Act by failing to keep the employees’ organisation regularly informed about developments in the business in terms of production and finances, as well as about the guidelines for personnel policy. The case also concerns whether the company and the employees’ organisation have entered into a collective agreement on the duty to provide information, and whether the company has breached that collective agreement.

The Labour Court has ordered the company to pay general damages to the trade union, as the court found that the company was obliged to provide the trade union with information regarding certain changes to the company’s sales organisation and that, by failing to provide information about the changes as soon as it was possible to do so, the company had breached the duty to provide information under Section 19a of the Co-determination Act. The Labour Court, however, held that the company was not obliged to provide the union with information regarding the fact that the company was to change its supplier of reconditioning services.

Finally, the Labour Court found that the parties had not entered into a collective agreement on the duty to provide information, as there was no mutual intention on the part of the parties to enter into a legally binding agreement and, furthermore, there were no grounds for the trade union to assume that the company intended to enter into such an agreement.

Read more here (Swedish).