Skydd för visselblåsare – ett komplext område. Om det rättsliga skyddet för arbetstagare som slår larm om missförhållanden på arbetsplatsen

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to examine the legal protection of whistleblowers in Sweden. The purpose is also to examine if any problems with this legal protection are solved by the bills in two Government Official Reports – SOU 2013:79 and SOU 2014:31. There is no specific regulation in Swedish law for the protection of whistleblowers. The legal protection is complex and different rules from different branch of law are applied. Furthermore the legal protection differs for private sector employees and public sector employees. Unlike private sector employees, public sector employees have a constitutionally protected freedom of speech in the Instrument of Government (Sw. Regeringsformen) which can be invoked against the employer. Civil servants in Sweden have a special protection in the Freedom of the Press Act (Sw. Tryckfrihetsförordningen) and the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression (Sw. Yttrandefrihetsgrundlagen) that gives them a right to pass on information to the media. According to these constitutions civil servants have the right to remain anonymous and a representative of an authority is not permitted to investigate which employee provided information to the media, nor may the employee be retaliated against. There is no equivalent protection in the private sector for most of the employees. Employees are protected to some extent by the Employment Protection Act (Sw. Lagen om anställningsskydd), “the EPA”, and by principles in employment law. The legal protection is, however, significantly limited by 39 § in the EPA that gives an employer the opportunity to "buy out" a critical employee. In SOU 2013:79, the inquiry proposes a new act that provides private sector employees working in certain publically funded activities services – health, education and welfare – a legal protection equal to the legal protection of public sector employees, in that the employer is not permitted to investigate which employee provided information to the media and that the employee may not be retaliated against. In SOU 2014:31, the inquiry proposes a new labour act on strengthened protection for employees who blow the whistle on serious wrongdoings. Also, a new section is proposed in the Work Environment Act (Sw. Arbetsmiljölagen) which requires employers to make sure that there are routines for internal reporting of serious wrongdoings or to take measures to facilitate such reporting. Though, this only needs be done in proportion to the organization’s needs. The inquiry also proposes rules for the protection of the identity of employees who blow the whistle on serious wrongdoings. Some of the problems with the legal protection of whistleblowers are solved by the bills in SOU 2013:79 and SOU 2014:31. However, there is also a risk that the legal protection gets even more complex.