Insights | January 29, 2021

Hire & Fire employment podcast – the Swedish “sauna principle” and redeployment for personal reasons

Is an employee allowed to go to the sauna during working hours? What courses of action can the employer take if something like that occurs? In this episode of Roschier’s employment law podcast, our experts discuss a particular kind of redeployments and how they should be handled.

Our employment law experts Jenny Welander Wadström and Elin Osbeck Rehbinder analyze the classic ruling AD 1978 no 89 where the concept of “the sauna principle” (Bastubadarprincipen) was first established. The main rule is that an employer has the right to redeploy or relocate employees, within the limits of the employment agreement, and that redeployments cannot be tried in court.

In the case AD 1978 no 89, the court ruled on an exception from the main rule, and this exception is called “the sauna principle”. Jenny and Elin go through the risks involved when a redeployment due to personal reasons is implemented and offer practical information about what employers can do when such a situation occurs.

You can find the episode below and in your favorite podcast listening app. Please note that the podcast is in Swedish.