Omplacera för att lösa samarbetssvårigheter?

Sammanfattning: The employer´s right to direct and allocate work lie as a significant foundation for Swedish labour law. This essay, however, aims to discuss one aspect of this right, namely the right to transfer an employee due to a lack of cooperation. The employer´s right to transfer an employee is partly limited to act within the boundaries of the employee´s obligation to work. Furthermore, a case from 1978 made the Labour Court establish Bastubadarprincipen ‘the sauna-bathing principle’ that has limited the employer´s right to transfer an employee. This principle enacts that there must be justifiable reasons for relocating an employee due to personal reasons if the relocation has led to particularly profound effects for the employee. Firstly, this essay discusses what is considered justifiable reasons for transferral. Secondly, it investigates what factors are at play when the Labour Court decides whether a relocation has led to particularly profound effects for the employee or not. Case law shows that a change in the employee’s salary or other employment benefits are crucial for the judgement. However, a change in the employee´s work tasks does not seem to matter as much as for example the salary. Difficulties in cooperation can be viewed as justifiable reasons for a relocation if these difficulties are serious enough to affect the employer´s company in a negative way