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by occz 1488 days ago
Depends on the legislation in the country of employment. In Sweden, the law covering this situation is LAS, Lag om Anställningsskydd, The Employment Protection Act.[1]

I'm not exactly an expert, but if you're going to lay people off you have to do it based on how long someone has been at the company. Before you can lay someone off for 'lack of work', you're also required to show that this person cannot fill another position at the company. The rules are definitely in favor of the worker in Sweden.

[1] https://www.government.se/government-policy/labour-law-and-w...

2 comments

This has been evolving over time. There are exceptions you can make as long as they're compensated. Now those things are negotiated in collective agreements at most places or individual contracts in the rare case.[1] There are also consequences for like if they claim it's a layoff but it's a firing and so on. It's kind of complicated and getting more so.

1. https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagen_om_anst%C3%A4llningsskyd...

Looking at the Wikipedia-article, it appears to apply to unionized workplaces, and Klarna is not one of them.

There are of course ways you can part with your employer that falls outside this law - you can be asked to waive your rights, in some cases against compensation. Your employer can also choose to break the law and bank on you not knowing your rights/not feeling equipped to fight for your rights.

The relevant part is this "LAS gäller för alla arbetstagare med undantag för de i företagsledande ställning. Lagen är tvingande, men kan inskränkas genom kollektivavtalsskrivelser."

The law covers all employers and employees regardless of union membership, but agreements between unions and employer organizations can limit the scope.

As you say, in practice companies will often sweeten the deal with a big severance package if they want to make changes which the law doesn't allow. I.e. get the right people to voluntarily resign instead of having the wrong people being laid off.

> Klarna is not one of them

Are you sure they don't fall under Unionen or some other TCO org?

According to the article from DI, they are not.
Given what I know from recent layoffs at other companies, it's not necessarily like that. There seems to be ways that don't involve seniority