New Regulatory Changes to Swedish Anti-Discrimination Act
January, 2017
Sweden has made a number of changes to their Anti-Discrimination Act as of January 1, 2017.
These include extending the scope of an act requiring all employers to take active measures to bring about equal rights and opportunities in the workplace regardless of gender, ethnicity and religion to include transgender identity or expression, disability, sexual orientation, and age.
Other developments include a requirement for comprehensive documentation of all employers’ work on active measures; and a four-part stipulation of the process for how work should be performed.
This additional administrative process consists of mapping operational risks of discrimination and nonequal treatment; analysis of the reasons behind identified risks; taking reasonable active measures to prevent discrimination and promote equal treatment; and evaluation and follow-up of the previous three steps.
Employers are also required to conduct salary surveys annually instead of every third year, and to have policies and internal routines for the purpose of preventing harassment, sexual harassment, and reprisals.
New legislation to protect whistleblowers was also put into effect, filling a void that had existed up until the new regulations were adopted.