Swedish employment law runs on LAS (the Employment Protection Act) and, more importantly, on collective agreements — which cover roughly 90% of employees and set pay, pensions, notice and much else. The 2022 LAS reform was the biggest change in fifty years: it made dismissal for personal reasons easier (removing the employee’s right to remain employed with pay during a dispute), widened exemptions from the seniority (‘last in, first out’) rule to three employees for all employers, and created a new state-funded transition and retraining benefit. Employees get 25 days’ holiday, 480 days of shared parental leave, and notice of one to six months by service.
Sweden reformed its famously rigid employment protection in 2022, and the reform did something unusual: it made both dismissal and retraining easier at the same time. The old LAS gave employees the right to stay employed, on full pay, while contesting a dismissal — a mechanism that could keep a disputed employee on the payroll for two years and that made Swedish employers extremely cautious. That is gone. In exchange, workers got a genuinely generous state-funded retraining and transition system. The result is a labour market that is more flexible than its reputation and more supportive than almost any other. This guide covers the 2026 position: LAS after the reform, collective agreements, notice and seniority rules, working time and the parental-leave system, and how disputes run.
What changed in the 2022 LAS reform?
Three things: dismissal for personal reasons became easier (the employment now ends at the end of the notice period even if contested, rather than continuing on pay through the dispute); all employers can now exempt three employees from the seniority order in redundancies; and a new state-funded transition and retraining benefit was created for workers changing careers.
What is ‘turordning’?
The seniority rule — in a redundancy, employees are dismissed in reverse order of length of service (‘last in, first out’) within each turordningskrets. The 2022 reform lets every employer exempt three employees from this order regardless of company size, which materially increased employer flexibility.
Do collective agreements really matter?
Enormously. Around 90% of Swedish employees are covered by a *kollektivavtal*, which sets pay scales, the occupational pension, notice periods, working-time rules and much else — often more favourably than LAS. There is no statutory minimum wage in Sweden; the collective agreement is the minimum wage.
How does the Swedish model work — and why is there no minimum wage?
Sweden has no statutory minimum wage, no state-set working-hours regulations beyond a framework, and comparatively little detailed employment legislation. Instead, it has the Swedish Model: the social partners — employer associations and unions — negotiate collective agreements (kollektivavtal) that set pay, pensions, working time, notice and dispute procedures, sector by sector. Coverage is around 90%, and union density remains among the world’s highest.
For a foreign employee, this has three practical consequences. First, your collective agreement governs more of your employment than LAS does — find out which one applies (ask HR; it will be an agreement between an employer association like Almega or Teknikföretagen and a union like Unionen or Sveriges Ingenjörer). Second, the occupational pension it provides is a substantial and invisible part of your pay. Third, joining a union is normal and useful — Swedish white-collar unions (Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer, Akavia) function partly as professional bodies and legal-insurance providers, and membership is unremarkable even at senior levels.
A note foreign employers should absorb: an employer without a collective agreement can be subject to industrial action to compel one, and this is legal. The Swedish Model is not optional in the way it appears from outside.
What did the 2022 LAS reform actually change?
Dismissal for personal reasons: previously, if an employee contested a dismissal, the employment continued — with full pay — until the dispute was finally resolved, which could take two years. Employers therefore almost never dismissed for personal reasons; they paid people to leave. Since October 2022, the employment ends at the expiry of the notice period regardless of the dispute, and the standard for a valid dismissal changed from ‘objective grounds’ (saklig grund) to ‘objectively justifiable reasons’ (sakliga skäl) — a formulation intended to focus on the breach itself rather than a broad prognosis of future conduct, and to reduce the employer’s obligation to attempt every conceivable alternative.
Seniority exemptions: the turordning rule dismisses by reverse seniority within each unit. Previously, only employers with ten or fewer employees could exempt two people from the order. Now every employer, of any size, may exempt three — and the exemptions are not subject to union veto. For a company making a small redundancy, this can be the difference between keeping your key engineer and losing them.
The transition and retraining benefit (omställningsstudiestöd): a genuinely remarkable state-funded scheme paying a substantial proportion of previous salary for up to a year of study, available to mid-career workers with sufficient work history, to retrain into a new field. Sweden’s answer to labour-market flexibility was not to make workers more precarious but to make career transitions economically survivable — and it is worth knowing about, because as a resident employee you may be eligible.
What are the notice, dismissal and redundancy rules?
Notice under LAS runs from one month (under two years’ service) up to six months (ten years or more), and collective agreements frequently improve on this. The employee’s notice to the employer is generally one to three months. There is no statutory severance pay in Sweden — a fact that surprises people, given the country’s reputation — though collective agreements and the transition organisations (omställningsorganisationer like TRR for white-collar staff) provide substantial support and, in practice, negotiated packages are common.
Dismissal for personal reasons (misconduct, persistent underperformance) requires objectively justifiable reasons, a warning giving the employee an opportunity to correct their conduct, and a genuine consideration of redeployment. It is now more achievable than before 2022 but still demands evidence and process. Summary dismissal (avsked) requires gross misconduct.
Redundancy requires genuine business reasons (which courts do not second-guess — the employer’s commercial judgement is respected), negotiation with the union under the Co-Determination Act (MBL) before any decision is implemented, application of the turordning seniority order (minus the three exemptions), and a re-employment right: employees made redundant have priority for re-hiring into the same operations for nine months. That last right is real and enforceable, and foreign employers who make someone redundant and hire a replacement three months later discover it painfully.
What are the working-time and leave entitlements?
Working time: 40 hours a week under the Working Hours Act, with overtime limits and collective agreements typically providing more favourable terms (many white-collar agreements exchange overtime pay for additional holiday days, so read yours). Sweden’s working culture genuinely observes these limits: leaving at 16:30 to collect children is normal at every level, and the person who stays late is not admired for it.
Annual leave: 25 days statutory (five weeks), with collective agreements commonly adding more for senior staff. Crucially, employees have a right to take four consecutive weeks in June–August — and Sweden genuinely does empty out in July. Holiday pay (semesterlön) includes a supplement, so leave is paid at slightly above normal salary.
Parental leave is the crown jewel and the reason many people move here: 480 days per child, shared between parents, with 390 days paid at roughly 80% of income (to a ceiling) and the remainder at a flat rate — plus 90 days reserved for each parent individually and non-transferable, which is why Swedish fathers actually take leave. Parents have the right to reduce their working hours to 75% until the child is eight. Add near-universal, heavily subsidised childcare (förskola, capped at a low monthly maximum) and VAB — paid leave to care for a sick child, at 80% of income, for up to 120 days a year per child. Nothing else in this series comes close.
How do disputes run — and what should expats document?
Disputes are handled first through union negotiation (the union raises the matter with the employer under the collective agreement’s dispute procedure), and only then in the Labour Court (Arbetsdomstolen) — which for union-represented employees is the court of first and last instance. Non-unionised employees go through the district court, with appeal to the Labour Court.
The union route is a genuine advantage: your union will negotiate and litigate for you, free, and Swedish unions are effective. This is the practical reason white-collar union membership remains high even among well-paid engineers and lawyers — it functions as legal insurance. If you are in a Swedish workplace with a collective agreement, joining the relevant union (Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer, Akavia) is a rational purchase, and it costs a modest monthly fee.
Time limits are short and unforgiving: to challenge a dismissal you must generally notify the employer within two weeks of receiving the notice (or one month if no information about how to challenge was given), and file within a further period. Ask your union immediately; do not spend a month deciding.
Documentation: the collective agreement that applies, your contract, payslips (which show the occupational pension), any written warnings, and — if a redundancy process starts — the MBL negotiation protocol, which records what the employer told the union and when. The protocol is the document that reveals whether the process was genuine or a formality performed after a decision was already made.
What about fixed-term contracts and the ‘sär’ rules?
Sweden’s main fixed-term category is särskild visstidsanställning (special fixed-term employment), which since the 2022 reform converts to indefinite employment after twelve months within a five-year period — considerably shorter than the previous two-year rule, and a genuine strengthening of protection for those on repeated short contracts.
Employees on fixed-term contracts also gained a right to request a more secure form of employment after a qualifying period, with the employer obliged to respond in writing, and enhanced rights to information about their conditions.
Staffing agency (bemanning) workers gained a right, after a period of assignment to the same user company, to be offered permanent employment by that company or compensated — a novel provision aimed at the long-term use of agency labour to avoid direct employment. Foreign employers using Swedish staffing agencies as a long-term workaround for employment protection should note that the workaround has been legislated against.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I join a union?
Probably yes. Swedish white-collar unions (Unionen, Sveriges Ingenjörer, Akavia) function as professional bodies and legal-insurance providers, membership is entirely normal at senior levels, and if a dispute arises they negotiate and litigate for you at no additional cost. It is a rational purchase, not a political statement, and Swedish colleagues will find it unremarkable.
Is there really no severance pay?
There is no *statutory* severance in Sweden — which surprises people. What exists instead is notice of up to six months, the transition organisations (TRR and others) funded by collective agreements that provide coaching and financial support, the state retraining benefit, and negotiated packages, which are common in practice. The system supports transitions rather than paying lump sums.
Did the 2022 reform make me less secure?
Somewhat — dismissal for personal reasons is now easier, and the employment ends at the notice period even if you contest it. But the reform also created the retraining benefit, shortened the fixed-term conversion period to twelve months, and strengthened agency workers’ rights. It rebalanced rather than simply deregulated.
Is the parental leave really that good?
Yes. 480 days per child, 390 at 80% of income, 90 days reserved for each parent, the right to work 75% until the child is eight, paid leave to care for a sick child, and childcare capped at a low monthly maximum. It is the most substantial family package in this series by a wide margin, and it is genuinely used by both parents.
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