New case law – regarding which party have terminated the employment (AD 2023 nr 3)

The Labour Court has examined whether an employee resigned voluntarily or whether the company dismissed the employee without cause. The employer claimed that the employee signed a resignation letter, but the union disputed the authenticity of the document. Although the employer was able to produce the original document, it was unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the employee’s signature was genuine, as the evidence was based mainly on hearsay and second-hand information conveyed in different languages, with a risk of misunderstanding. The Labour Court therefore found that it had not been proven that the employee had resigned. The employee was therefore deemed to have been dismissed by the employer.

The court then examined whether there were objective grounds for the dismissal, but found that the employer’s evidence was too general and did not demonstrate sufficiently serious shortcomings in the employee’s work. The dismissal was therefore declared invalid.

Read more here (Swedish).