Reformen av LAS och dess effekter för uppsägning av arbetstagare

Sammanfattning: In 2022 7 § Employment Protection Act was reformed. The reform changed employers’ rights to dismiss employees due to personal reasons. The aim of the reform was to achieve clearer and more predictable regulation. This essay aims to investigate how the reform affects employers and employees. The reform included the addition of 2 c § Employment Protection Act, which enabled deviations from 7 § Employment Protection Act through collective agreements. However, the regulation did not achieve the intended rise in predictability. Instead, the reform will result in increased uncertainty regarding applicable regulation. Svenskt Näringsliv, LO and PTK have entered into a collective agreement with deviations from the regulation of termination of employment due to personal reasons. Thus, there are different regulations for employees that are covered by the collective agreement and for employees that are not. A challenge with the agreement is that it is largely consistent with the regulation in law, which makes it difficult to identify how the regulation differs from the law. Due to the reform, the wording of when an employment can be terminated has changed. The aim of the amendment is to remove focus from the employee’s future ability to work and the employee’s personal interest in maintaining the employment. It has therefore become clearer and more predictable when an employment can be terminated. The regulation makes it easier for an employer to terminate the contract, but the employee loses some employment protection. The regulation can be beneficial for employees as a group. Moreover, the change is ambiguous as the lawmaker promotes both preservation and a change in regulation. This creates uncertainty. In general, the employer has an obligation to relocate the employee instead of terminating the employment. Through the reform, an additional regulation was added which states that the employer only has to relocate the employee once. If the employee breaches their obligations after the relocation, the employer can terminate the employment. If there are any special circumstances, the employer can be required to relocate the employee several times. The provision contributes to an increase in predictability as to when a dismissal can take place. Although, special circumstances are vaguely defined, which results in uncertainty. To summerize, the regulation means that an employer will have to consider fewer circumstances in the event of termination, while the individual employees employment protection is reduced. Unpredictability arises from the ambiguous regulation. The possibility to make deviations from the law contributes to an increase in unpredictability.