Who is Responsible for Work Environment and Criminal Liability?

Who is Responsible for the Work Environment in a Workplace?

The employer always bears ultimate responsibility for the work environment in a workplace. This responsibility cannot be transferred, but the employer may delegate work environment tasks to managers or other persons within the organisation. Anyone who receives such tasks must have sufficient knowledge, authority and resources to carry them out.

Legislation is built on a clear allocation of responsibility:

• The employer: Bears primary responsibility and is obliged to conduct systematic work environment management (SAM) to prevent ill health and accidents.
• Managers and supervisors: Are responsible for the work environment within their respective areas through delegated responsibility.
• Safety representatives: Appointed by the trade union or by workers to represent employees. They do not hold formal work environment responsibility, but have the right to monitor that the employer fulfils the requirements of the law.

What Obligations Does a Worker Have Under the Work Environment Act?

Workers have a statutory obligation to actively contribute to a safe workplace:

• Participate in work environment management: You are obliged to take part in implementing the measures needed to create a good working environment and to cooperate with the employer.
• Follow safety regulations and instructions: You must comply with the regulations and instructions that apply to the operation.
• Use protective equipment: Where work requires it, you are obliged to use the prescribed protective equipment and to make use of existing safety devices.
• Exercise caution: You must be careful and attentive in order to prevent ill health and accidents.
• Report hazards and incidents: If you identify deficiencies, risks or irregularities, you must report them to the employer or safety representative as soon as possible.
• Stop work in the event of serious danger: If you assess that your work involves an immediate and serious danger to life or health, you must immediately cease work and notify the employer or safety representative.

Who Counts as an Employer?

Under the Work Environment Act, the physical or legal person who has entered into an employment contract with a worker is regarded as the employer. This means it is the organisation, company, authority or municipality that is legally the employer — not the individual manager.

Natural or Legal Person

This describes who or what owns the company or operation.

• Natural person: A private individual or sole trader.
• Legal person: A company, organisation or public authority. This is a created legal entity with a registration number rather than a personal identity number. Examples include a limited company (AB), a municipality, a region or an association. It is the company itself that is your employer, not your immediate manager.

Who Does the Concept Cover?

• Companies and corporations: All private actors, regardless of whether they are a limited company, partnership or sole trader.
• Public sector organisations: Municipalities, regions, central government agencies and authorities.
• Private individuals: A private individual who employs someone (e.g. for renovation work) becomes legally an employer.
• Hiring companies: When staff are hired in, the hiring company is the employer and therefore bears work environment responsibility.

The Difference Between Employer and Manager

It is the employer (the organisation) that bears ultimate civil and financial liability for compliance with the Work Environment Ordinance and the Swedish Work Environment Authority's regulations on Systematic Work Environment Management (SAM).

Since a legal person cannot carry out practical work itself, the employer must delegate work environment tasks to managers, supervisors or other employees within the organisation. It is only in the event of a potential work environment offence (criminal liability under the Penal Code) that responsibility may become personal for an individual manager, provided that manager has been given clear tasks, authority and resources.

What Must a Written Delegation of Tasks Look Like?

For a written delegation of tasks to be legally valid under scrutiny from the Swedish Work Environment Authority or a prosecutor, a simple document is not sufficient. It must meet the strict requirements set out in AFS 2023:1 on systematic work environment management (SAM). The law requires that the documentation clearly demonstrates that the recipient is both able and authorised to carry out the tasks.

The following elements must be present and fulfilled for the delegation to be legally sound:

1. It must be directed to a named individual (or specific position)

• Tasks must be delegated to a specific natural person (e.g. "Johan Johansson") or to a clearly defined position (e.g. "Site Manager at Factory X").
• It is not valid to delegate tasks to an entire group, such as "the management team" or "the shift teams".

2. Clearly specified work environment tasks

• The document must state exactly what the person is required to do. General phrases such as "responsible for safety" are too vague and will not hold up under scrutiny.
• Specific tasks must be stated, for example: leading safety inspections, conducting risk assessments prior to changes, inducting new employees or following up action plans.

3. The three pillars: Authority, Resources and Knowledge

This is the most critical element. The document must demonstrate that the employee has been given the right conditions:

• Authority (right to make decisions): The person must have the right to stop dangerous work without needing to seek permission.
• Resources (time and budget): The person must have a budget for addressing risks, access to protective equipment and sufficient time allocated in their working week to carry out work environment management.
• Knowledge (competence): It must be evident that the person has adequate training in work environment legislation and the risks present in the operation.

4. The right to return the task

• The document should include a clause or procedure for how the person may return the task.
• If the recipient finds that resources are being reduced or that time is insufficient, they must have the right to formally return the work environment task in writing to senior management. Responsibility then immediately reverts to the employer (CEO/board).

5. Signature and confirmation

• The document must be signed by both the person delegating the task (e.g. the CEO) and the person receiving it. By signing, the recipient confirms that they have understood the assignment and consider themselves to have sufficient authority, resources and knowledge to fulfil it.

(Note that a written delegation is a legal requirement for all organisations with 10 or more employees, but is strongly recommended for smaller companies as well.)

How is Criminal Liability Allocated if an Accident Occurs?

If a serious workplace accident occurs, the incident is investigated by the police and a specialist prosecutor to determine whether a work environment offence has been committed under the Penal Code.
Since an accident always affects a human being, criminal liability is divided into two separate tracks: personal criminal liability for the individual, and a financial penalty for the company.

Personal Criminal Liability (Natural Person)

A custodial sentence or personal fines can never be imposed on a company — they must always be directed at a living individual (natural person). The prosecutor looks for the person within the organisation who had the authority, resources and knowledge to prevent the accident but failed in their responsibility.

• Who is held accountable? It is not automatically the CEO or the board. If the company has put in place a clear delegation of tasks, liability may rest with a site manager, supervisor or department manager.
• What is required for a conviction? The prosecutor must prove that the person acted negligently. This may involve a manager having failed to carry out a risk assessment for a hazardous task, not having addressed a known equipment defect, or not having provided workers with the correct protective equipment.
• The penalty: If the person is convicted of a work environment offence (causing bodily harm or causing the death of another) the penalty is personal day-fines or imprisonment (up to two years, or six years for a serious offence). This is recorded on the person's criminal record.

Financial Penalty for the Company (Legal Person)

Even though a limited company cannot be imprisoned, the business must face financial consequences if it has failed to manage the work environment properly. This is known as a corporate fine.

• When is it imposed? A corporate fine is almost always sought by the prosecutor in parallel with the personal investigation, where the offence has been committed in the course of business operations.
• Who pays? It is the legal person (the limited company) that pays the fine. Owners do not become personally liable with their private assets.
• Amount: Corporate fines range from a minimum of SEK 40,000 up to SEK 10 million (and in extremely serious cases up to SEK 100 million), depending on the size of the company and the severity of the deficiency.

What happens to the employee?

If a worker is injured as a result of deliberately breaching clear safety rules — and the employer has done everything correctly — criminal liability for the employer will generally not arise. This is referred to as the worker having acted entirely on their own initiative. The injured employee will, however, typically still receive compensation through the statutory occupational injury insurance scheme (TFA/the Swedish Social Insurance Agency).