Nordic Employment Law Bulletin - June 2025
In our monthly Nordic Employment Law bulletin our employment lawyers across the Nordic region highlight relevant news and trends on the Nordic employment market scene. The bulletin intends to provide high-level knowledge and insight. Want to learn more? Our experts will be happy to hear from you.
Highlights from Denmark
Judgment from the Danish Supreme Court. In a judgment handed down on 2 May 2025, the Danish Supreme Court decided that employees may be covered by occupational injury insurance for accidents that occur at their home workplace, even if the accident is a result of the private arrangement of the home. The case concerns an employee who works from home and at one point gets up from her desk and goes to the coffee machine in the kitchen. On the employee’s way back to her desk, she falls and injures herself. The accident was caused by the employee falling over a box that was on the floor.
The employee’s preparation of coffee was naturally related to her work and therefore the accident occurred while she was performing her work.
The question in the case was how far the Danish Industrial Injuries Act covers accidents that occur due to the employee’s private arrangements.
The Danish Supreme Court found that the fact that the employee fell over a private object in her home did not in itself constitute grounds for deviating from the basic principle that falls in connection with work covered by the Danish Industrial Injuries Act.
Highlights from Finland
- The Finnish Supreme Administrative Court ruled on the legal nature of platform work in Finland – On 22 May 2025, the Supreme Administrative Court issued a significant ruling on the legal status of platform workers in food delivery business. The case concerned whether the individuals providing courier services were employed by the platform company or whether they acted as independent service providers. The court found that all the characteristics of an employment relationship were fulfilled, and concluded that there an employment relationship existed between the parties because the opportunity for direction and supervision by the platform created a de facto subordinate relationship. The legal assessment was based on both national law and EU case law, which states that the employment relationship should not be defined narrowly. However, even though the employment relationship was deemed to exist, the court found that the Working Hours Act did not apply because the couriers had autonomy over their working hours, which the employer could not control these due to the nature of the activity. This ruling highlights the complex legal nature of platform work and a key challenge: work organized through digital platforms can contain both an employment relationship and non-traditional aspects of working time regulation, and the case may have implications also for the broader employment law regulations.
A draft government's proposal to implement the Pay Transparency Directive published – The national implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive has taken a step forward as a draft government’s proposal by the working group set up by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health was published on 16 May 2025. The official version of the government's proposal is expected to be presented in week 39 of 2025. In the draft proposal it is proposed that the new legislation would be enter into force on 18 May 2026. The working group has included representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, labor market organizations and the offices of the Ombudsman for Equality and the Ombudsman for Data Protection. The working group was not unanimous with their draft proposal and part of the group have stated that the draft is not feasible in the form presented. Thus, it is possible that the official government’s proposal will be to some extent different from the draft proposal.
Highlights from Norway
New working group to review the organization of work and assignments in the advisory and consultancy sector: The Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion has established a working group to examine how work and assignments are organized within the consultancy sector. The initiative follows legislative amendments that came into force in April 2023 and January 2024, including stricter regulations on the hiring of temporary staff from staffing agencies and a clearer definition of who qualifies as an employee. These changes have revealed that some self-employed consultants have, in practice, operated as staffing agencies. As a result, several consultants have lost assignments, as they fall outside the scope of the hiring regulations and therefore cannot obtain statutory approval as staffing agencies.
The working group is tasked with identifying challenges and proposing measures to establish clearer frameworks and more practical solutions for the use of external consultants and advisors. The group is expected to submit its report to the Ministry by 1 April 2026.
- Update of the National Insurance Basic Amount ("G") - The National Insurance Basic Amount ("G") is increased annually on May 1st. Effective May 1, 2025, the amount has been revised from NOK 124,028 to NOK 130,160, representing an increase of 4.944%. The basic amount is significant in several contexts of labour and employment law, for instance the calculation of compensation enforcing non-compete clauses (currently the compensation is 100% of the employee’s salary up to 8 G and at least 70% of the employee’s salary for amounts exceeding 8 G and up to a total of 12 G). The basic amount is also utilized in calculation of many of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration’s (NAV) payments, impacting inter alia: retirement pension from the National Insurance Scheme, sickness benefits, work assessment allowances and disability benefits. Additionally, the basic amount affects the thresholds for pension accruals.
Highlights from Sweden
- Working hours debate intensifies across Sweden — The Swedish labor market is witnessing mounting pressure for working time reduction from multiple fronts. The Chairman of LO (The Swedish Trade Union Confederation) asserts "it is time to reduce working hours for everyone in Sweden because we can simply afford it", advocating for a solidarity-based approach including all sectors. LO economists estimate a 35-hour work week would cost between 1.7% and 3.1% of GDP. Meanwhile, one working group in the Social Democratic Party, led by former minister Annika Strandhäll, proposes gradually reduced working hours from 40 to 35 hours by 2035. Additionally, over 30 local party organisations have submitted a motion for a more ambitious 30-hour workweek with maintained pay, citing stress, work-related illness and work-life balance challenges. However, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR) remains unconvinced. SKR's Head of Negotiations argues that while shorter hours may promote employee health, employers need financial capacity to implement such changes. She estimates a two-hour weekly reduction for public contact professionals would cost SEK 24 billion and warns: "Reducing working hours where there is already a staff shortage will likely increase the burden on existing personnel, as the work still must be done".
Labour Court dismisses claim regarding part-time firefighter secondary employment — The Swedish Labour Court has ruled that a municipality did not violate their collective bargaining agreements by prohibiting a project manager from working as a part-time firefighter. The dispute centred on whether this decision violated the General Provisions in the CBA for Swedish municipalities, which grants so-called employers a discretionary right to decide in such matters, provided that the decisions are not arbitrary or improper. The Court found the municipality's decision was objectively justified as the secondary employment could hinder the employee's work performance given the employee's situation and operational requirements. The judgement clarified that the Court's role is not to reassess the decision's appropriateness but only to determine whether it was made properly. Importantly, the ruling confirmed that this collective bargaining agreement provision constitutes a permitted deviation from the Employment Protection Act's general right to secondary employment (introduced in 2022), as it meets the objective grounds requirement under the EU Working Conditions Directive (2019/1152).
- Pension age stays put: what employers should know — The Swedish government has confirmed that the pension reference age will stay at 67 for 2031, maintaining consistency with the 2026-2030 period. For employers, this means workforce planning can proceed with certainty, as employees born in 1964 will not be eligible for basic pension protection until reaching the sprightly age of 67. As employers update their succession planning and retirement policies, they can safely factor in this unchanging threshold - giving them plenty of time to capture valued employees' knowledge before they trade their office chairs for garden loungers.
