Swedish antidiscrimination law in action – an e-mail conversation between a recruiter and a candidate

Based on a true story. If you are interested in learning more about the Swedish Discrimination Act (in Swedish), head over to my post evaluating a range of answers to requests based on Chapter 2 Section* as final assignment for an advanced university course in Swedish Labour Law.

*”If a job applicant has not been employed or selected for an employment interview, or if an employee has not been promoted or selected for education or training for promotion, the applicant shall, upon request, receive written information from the employer about the education, professional experience and other qualifications that the person had who was selected for the employment interview or who obtained the job or the place in education or training.”

https://www.do.se/other-languages/english/discrimination-act/#2

Why “Due to the large number of applications, we are not able to provide individual feedback.” isn’t enough anymore

According to the Swedish Discrimintation Act (diskrimineringslagen 2 kap. 4 §) internal and external applicants have the right to receive written information on the qualifications of those candidates that have been invited to an interview or that have been selected for the position. Based on relevant literature and legal practice from the Swedish labour court, I analyse a couple of anonymised answers from employers which received a request based on DL 2 kap. 4 §. Replying to those requests can be a tricky undertaking if you don’t follow a competence-based and structured recruitment process. I elaborate on practical implications and provide suggestions on how to improve recruitment processes so that “DL 2 kap. 4 §”-requests don’t take you by surprise.

This essay is written in Swedish but automated translation to English usually works pretty okay.