Symptoms at work can get you fired

A little sick? It is best to stay home, both because of the corona infection and the risk of losing your job. Stock Photography.Image: Cornelius Poppe / NTB / TT

Employers are obligated to protect their staff, but each of us also has a great responsibility.

Anyone who ignores the symptoms and general advice to stay home to prevent the spread of Covid 19 could be fired or even fired, explains Birgitta Nyström, a civil law professor with a specialization in labor law at Lund University.

– The higher the position, education and self-determination you have, the more serious it is to break the rules, he says.

There are different “degrees” of violations of employers’ recommendations and rules regarding infection, he explains.

– If you do not know that you are infected, of course it cannot be loaded. But if someone in the home is infected, the recommendations mean that you should stay home, and if you have been tested, you should wait for the test result. If you think you are infected, you should stay home.

However, the pandemic infection and the general council is a new phenomenon, and the Labor Court has not yet tried any cases. Tomas Björk, head of labor law in the Swedish municipalities and regions (SKR), says that there have not been many signs that staff in the municipalities and regions areas go to work despite having symptoms.

But purely theoretically, violations can have consequences in labor law, explains Birgitta Nyström. Although it depends a lot on the circumstances of the individual case whether an offense means that you will lose your job.

– You have to consider the type of job in question. If you know many clients and colleagues, and if you are in a position of responsibility it is worse. The knowledge you have also matters.

For example, those who work with the infection are expected to know the rules.

– Anyone who, for example, works as an infection control doctor will never be able to claim that he does not know what applies. There I imagine there is a basis for dismissal.

Tomas Björk emphasizes that each case must be judged individually, and that it is difficult to generalize, but that the level of knowledge of the employee is of great importance.

The employer’s own rules about how employees should act to prevent infection are also important, explains Birgitta Nyström.

– It is a good idea for employers to repeat the rules of conduct, so that the employer makes it clear that “this is how we behave here.”

But when the Labor Court examines whether layoffs and layoffs are correct, it also takes into account things that can be mitigating, such as language difficulties, he says.

– It may also be important how the employee behaved before, if later he has shown negligence with his colleagues.

The forecast for the future can also play a role, explains Birgitta Nyström.

The question is whether it can also be a crime to ignore the rules. Andreas Nyberg, a court prosecutor in Umeå and a media prosecutor who focuses on crimes committed in the service, explains that no cases have been tried, but that in that case they could be two different types of crimes.

– Not likely to be an intentional crime. It could be negligence causing illness or bodily injury, says Andreas Nyberg.

So it is required that someone has actually been infected, he emphasizes.

– It should also be possible to investigate the routes of infection, so a research work is needed before it is possible to prosecute someone.

– It could also be dangerous for others, he says.

The new law against the pandemic allows the introduction of criminal provisions for violations of people, but this has not yet been done.

– The prosecutor has proposed a fine of SEK 2,000 for violating the rules of the Pandemic Law, says Andreas Nyberg.