I've been laid off because of coronavirus. What do I do?
Kan du kontakta och hjälpa mig på engelska. Idag Jag fick ett uppsägningsmeddelande och jag skulle vilja ha lite juridisk hjälp. Min svenska är inte tillräckligt bra för att förstå de här juridiska frågorna.
Om det inte är möjligt kommer jag att försöka förklara via översättaren
Jag har arbetat i ett år på mitt nuvarande företag och de har sagt upp mig med 1 månads uppsägningstid per kontrakt. Jag skulle vilja veta vad jag kan göra och vad ska jag göra för att få stöd från att Arbetsförmedlingen eller från den nuvarande situationen med COVID19. Eller åtminstone om det finns några steg som jag kan följa eller tillämpa
Jag inte medlem i en fackförening eller A-Kassa, eftersom företaget inte tillhör någon fackförening och alla fackföreningar jag har försökt bli medlem sa att de inte var den rätta.
Tack så mycket
Lawline svarar
Hello!
Thank you for turning to Lawline with your question. I have taken the liberty of changing your question a bit, in order to clarify it for others who might find it. I have made sure to keep the original meaning of the question intact as best possible.
If I have understood your question correctly you need help because you have recieved a 1 month notice of termination. You also are not a member of any trade union or unemployment insurance.
Your job
You have been let go because the company you work at have seen their incoming business reduced. Therefore they have found that there was not enough work to motivate keeping you on.
This may or may not be true, it is up to the employer to determine that for themselves in Sweden. Employees have to accept the employer's decision regarding this normally. The law states that in order to terminate someone's employment the employer needs to present adequate and relevant reasons for doing so(7 § LAS: Employment Protection Act). This has been divided into "personal reasons" and "lack of business". Both place the burden of proof on the employer, but "lack of business" is accepted unless there's reasonable suspicion that the employer is targeting one of their employees specifically for other reasons.
In your case there is no reason to suspect the employer of being dishonest, so you will have to accept that your job is lost. You should start looking for a new one as soon as possible.
Arbetsförmedlingen
Arbetsförmedlingen is a public institution that is meant to help jobseekers find work. In order to enlist their help you just need to contact them and set up a meeting. You can visit their homesite here. They provide you with everything you could need in order to find a new job. Most of all they have job listings that you can look through here. Just type in the searchfield to start looking, it works mostly like Google, but for job listings.
Trade unions and unemployment benefit
In Sweden the law actually states very little regarding specifics on employment. There is for example no legal minimum wage. Most of the specifics are agreed on between employers and trade unions through collective bargaining. This is achieved through a high level of unionisation and laws that encourage membership. In Sweden most of your rights as an employee can only be effectively enforced through the unions' help.
Trade unions are organised according to professions. For example people who work as teachers are organised in the teacher's union. This is likely the reason the trade unions rejected you. You probably turned to the ones that organise a different industry.
There are three "over-unions" that organise the unions themselves on a higher level. These are SACO(academics), TCO(office emplyees/clerks) and LO(industrial/service workers). The appropriate union for any job is organised under one of these three. Contact them to ask, and one of them will have the correct union for you to join.
Regarding A-kassa(unemployment benefit) the swedish model for this is similar to regular insurance. Unions typically have their own A-kassa that you can join at the same time you join the union itself. For those who are unable to find one there is Alfa-kassan. This one can be joined by anybody, and will help you out even if you are not a paying member. In that case they will give you less money than if you were however, but still more than nothing.
COVID-19
The coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the world, and the swedish state has organised a response that aims to help people by reduced barriers to enter unemplyment benefit, helping companies pay sick leave, and giving them state backed loans. This help can be accessed through turning to the institutions that would normally handle the problems caused by unemplyment and bad business. The institutions have recieved additional funding to handle the increased influx of people in need of help.
I hope this answears all you questions. If there is anything else you wonder feel free to turn to us again.
Yours truly,
