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It’s Thursday, February 6, and the Globe is decorated for a hockey party when the annual picks tournament will be decided.
Tre Kronor faces the Czech Republic in the first match, and it is during one of the breaks of the match period that the event occurs that it becomes a lawsuit.
The plaintiff, an employee of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, is standing in the hallway and talking on the phone when a man, who also worked for the Ice Hockey Association, walks up and hugs her.
According to the plaintiffs, the man grabs her with his arms, twists his left leg around her and “itches” for a few seconds before she lets go.
In police questioning, the woman says she felt deeply humiliated by the increase.
The accused man, who denies the crime, describes the situation at questioning as a friendly hug and says that he never thought of violating the plaintiff’s sexual integrity.
A third employee, who witnessed the incident, raised it with his immediate superior that night. During the weekend of the selection, the plaintiff also raised it with his boss, and with his union.
However, it would be until early March before a police report was filed, and then Anders Feltenmark, who at the time was chairman of the union department Unionen at the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
The hockey association’s general secretary, Tommy Boustedt, announced in late April that he would resign.
Photo: Ludvig Thunman / Bildbyrån
Coronapandemin had taken Sweden by the hand when Sportbladet revealed in early April that there was a police report against a person linked to the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and that information assistant Anders Feltenmark, who was Tre Kronor’s press manager for many years, he had been laid off after 24 years of employment. According to information to Sportbladet, the dismissal was due to the actions of Feltenmark in connection with the police report.
– It’s shocking and sad. He could never have dreamed that he would end up in a situation like this. My plan was to work at the hockey association until I retire one day, Feltenmark told DN.
The union’s then general secretary, Tommy Boustedt, denied to DN that the firing was related to a police report, but said the reason was lack of work.
In an interview At Radiosporten in late August, Tommy Boustedt did not comment on the question of why Feltenmark had to leave the association, but later said that Feltenmark had behaved “extremely unfair”.
– The Employers’ Alliance and the Central Union stated that it has acted unfairly in various actions and that there were grounds for dismissal, Boustedt said.
When DN contacted Anders Feltenmark after Boustedt’s statement, he said:
– It is sad not to be able to face such radical and serious accusations from which it is difficult to defend oneself.
– Of course I would like to give my photo, but it is a difficult situation in which I find myself. Based on the agreement made between me and the Hockey Association, I am bound by a duty of confidentiality in this matter.
The revelation about police report It came to light about the activities of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association in general, and SVT was able to reveal, among other things, that the union club in November 2019 sent an official protest against the association’s salary fixing. Among other things, the club listed several cases in which it considered that discriminatory wages had been established on the basis of gender.
After a turbulent few weeks, the Ice Hockey Association announced on April 22 that General Secretary Tommy Boustedt had decided to end his service with the association.
– We must find the right way to the future. After talking with Tommy, we came to the conclusion that the way forward is for Tommy to leave in the fall, union president Anders Larsson told DN.
Tommy Boustedt later decided not to speak to the media, but commented on the decision to resign in a press release:
– The past year has been a tumultuous time both for the Federal Chancellery and, of course, for me personally. Therefore, after a period of discussion with the board, it has emerged that this is the way forward for both me and the union.
– 19 years in the hockey association is a long time and now is the time for something new. I have had many good years in the association and have also had the privilege of working closely and with many knowledgeable ice hockey people.
Anders Larsson, President of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
Photo: Jonas Ekströmer / TT
In the midst of internal turbulence At the office, the preliminary investigation into sexual harassment was ongoing, and in early May it was clear that prosecutor Johnny Järlefelt had decided to prosecute the former union employee.
In the preliminary investigation that led to the accusation, representatives of the Ice Hockey Association assure that they supported the plaintiff, but that image is not shared by the employee. Instead, he affirms in the interrogation that “he has the strong feeling that the employer wants to silence what happened.” His boss asks, among other things, why he turned to the union and asks him what he “wants to get out of the situation.”
The plaintiff also says that she is very disappointed with the way the Swedish Ice Hockey Association has handled the case and that she has sought and received psychological help.
During the police questioning, the plaintiff’s manager reports that on the morning of the day after the incident he had a conversation with the now accused who later questioned the accusations. In the conversation, the boss informs you that “zero tolerance” applies.
The manager says he has no reason to question either the plaintiff or the defendant’s version of what happened, and claims on questioning that he never considered reporting the incident to the police.
In question about the union urged the plaintiff to report the incident to the police himself, board member Mats Larsson, who is chairman of the union’s legal committee, responded to DN in May:
If you’re going to sum it up in any way, you can say that when she explained what action we intended to take internally in relation to the suspect and asked her if there was anything else she wanted to do, she didn’t. So what he said was that he did not want to report to the police.
The union did not initially report to the Swedish Work Environment Authority either.
– What they did was contact the Employers Alliance for general advice on what we as employers should do in this situation. But no, we haven’t reported it to the Swedish Work Environment Authority, Mats Larsson told DN on May 12.
However, on May 13, the managing director of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, Peter Langley, submitted a report to the Swedish Work Environment Authority.
An inspection was carried out in June and the authority subsequently prepared an inspection report. The inspection report indicated, among other things, that the authority required an external investigation of the work environment.
Just over eight months after the incident On Wednesday, it is time for the court to decide whether the former union employee was guilty of sexual harassment.
Three hours have been booked in the Södertörn District Court, and prosecutor Johnny Järlefelt has previously said that he will likely demand that the defendant be sentenced to a “relatively high fine”.
