The work environment is not only about machines and chemicals. How work is organised and how people treat each other are just as important. The rules are in chapter 2 of AFS 2023:2.
Key concepts
- Organisational work environment means the conditions and prerequisites for the work, such as management and governance, communication, participation, scope for action, allocation of tasks, and demands, resources and responsibility.
- Social work environment means social interaction, cooperation and social support from managers and colleagues.
- Demands at work are the parts of the work that require repeated effort, for example workload and deadlines.
- Resources are what helps to reach the goals or meet the demands, for example competence, staffing, clear goals, feedback, control over the work and support.
- Unhealthy workload is when the demands, more than temporarily, are greater than the resources. It becomes unhealthy if it goes on for a long time and there is too little recovery.
Knowledge among managers
The employer must see that managers and supervisors have knowledge of how to prevent and deal with unhealthy workload and victimisation (kränkande särbehandling, section 4). The employer must also create the conditions for using that knowledge, for example sufficient authority, a reasonable workload and support in the managerial role.
Goals
The employer must have goals for the organisational and social work environment (section 5). The goals must promote health and increase the ability to counteract ill health. Employees must be able to take part when the goals are drawn up and must know them. The goals must be in writing with ten or more employees.
Workload
Tasks and authority must not lead to an unhealthy workload. Resources must be adapted to the demands (section 6). The employer must also make sure that employees know:
- which tasks they are to carry out
- what result is to be achieved
- whether the work is to be done in any particular way
- what is to be prioritised when time is short
- whom they can turn to for help and support
If the work is highly mentally stressful, the employer must take measures so that it does not lead to ill health (section 8). The scheduling of working hours, for example shift work, night work and long shifts, must not lead to ill health (section 9).
Victimisation
Victimisation (kränkande särbehandling) means actions directed at one or more employees in an offensive way that can lead to ill health or to someone being left out of the community at the workplace.
The employer must:
- make clear that it is not accepted in the business (section 10), preferably in a written policy
- take measures against conditions that can give rise to it, for example conflicts and a high workload
- see that there are procedures showing who receives information, what the recipient does and how a person who is affected can get help quickly (section 11)
- make the procedures known to everyone
Whoever investigates must have sufficient competence, be impartial and have the trust of those concerned. Work environment legislation is meant to prevent ill health. It does not regulate compensation or blame.
What you still have to do yourself
Knowledge is not enough. You must make sure that work is distributed reasonably, that staff know whom they can turn to and that the procedures work when something happens.