New case law – question of whether a company prevented a number of safety representatives from fulfilling their duties as safety representatives and as union representatives by refusing to disclose the names of employees

Question of whether a company prevented a number of safety representatives from fulfilling their duties as safety representatives and as union representatives by failing, either upon request or on its own initiative, to disclose the names of the employees who were required to submit so-called “first-day certificates” (Sw: förstadagsintyg) and who were subject to work accommodation measures. In the context of the dispute, the question has arisen as to whether a safety representative’s duties include the right to represent individual employees and participate in their individual cases, even without the consent of the employees concerned.

The Labor Court has found that, under the Swedish Work Environment Act, a safety representative’s duties do not include the right to represent individual employees and participate in their cases without the employee’s consent. A safety representative therefore has no need to be provided with the names of the employees who are required to submit first-day certificates and are subject to work accommodation measures.

The Labor Court has further held that, as a general rule, a safety representative does not need the names of employees who are required to submit first-day certificates and are subject to workplace accommodation measures in order to promote a satisfactory work environment for all employees at the workplace and to ensure that the employer fulfills its obligations and follows up on corrected action plans and procedures. What is important for the safety representatives’ duties is knowing that an employee is subject to a first-day certificate, not who that employee is.

The Labor Court has therefore concluded that the safety representatives did not need the information they requested for their work. The company thus did not prevent the safety representatives from fulfilling their duties when it failed to disclose the names of the employees who had been required to submit first-day certificates and who were subject to work accommodation measures.

Read more here (Swedish).