Sweden: Court Ruling That Disobedience And Inappropriate Behaviour Constituted Grounds For Dismissal With Notice, But Not Summary Dismissal

An employer of a care centre for refugee minors had summarily dismissed an employee after six months of employment. The employer claimed that the employee refused to follow orders issued by her supervisor and that the employee behaved inappropriately, by screaming and crying in front of the minors after conflicts with her co-workers. Several meetings and warnings had preceded the summary dismissal, but the employee failed to show improvement and continued to disobey her supervisor. The employee, however, claimed that she had no obligation to follow the orders issued by her supervisor, as the supervisor was a younger co-worker.

The Labour Court found that the employee had disobeyed the supervisor on several occasions and that she, in connection with this, had behaved inappropriately by having outbursts in front of the minors. However, as regards the disobedience, the Court found that the employee had only disobeyed orders from a certain supervisor, and that she otherwise had performed her work as instructed. In addition, the Court considered that the outbursts had happened in connection with conflicts at the workplace. As such, the Court ruled that the employee had not grossly violated her employment obligations and that the employer lacked legal grounds for a summary dismissal. The Court found, however, that the employee’s actions constituted grounds for dismissal with notice. As such, the Court ruled that the employer was liable to pay damages to the employee amounting to SEK 71,000.