Nurses on parental leave are not discriminated against – work

It is the Discrimination Ombudsman, DO, who pursued the case of the intensive care nurse against her employer, Västmanland Region.

The Intensive Care Nurse has been permanently employed in the Västmanland region for over a decade.

She has had good salary development in recent years, has been assessed as ‘particularly skilled’ and has also been encouraged by her supervisor to apply for the ‘Tomorrow’s boss’ development initiative.

It was accepted and completed.

Not on site during a pandemic

At the same time, she was on parental leave. First full time for just over a year, then part time. During the salary review in 2021, the nurse was dissatisfied with her salary increase.

It was 2.8 percent and thus below the average of 2.95 percent for all intensive care nurses in the district.

When the nurse wanted an explanation, she was told, according to the DO, that she should be satisfied with the average raise and that this year her employer chose to reward people who “did a good job” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nurse was not able to do this, as she was on parental leave at the time. Thus, the State Department considers that the employer has violated the prohibition on harming parental leave.

It is difficult to interpret the salary model

This is opposed by his employer, who believes the explanation is a misunderstanding.

It is believed that the reason why the employee in question did not get as good a salary development in 2021 as in the previous year has to do with the fact that she was very highly regarded in the previous year’s salary setting.

Then a new salary standards form was introduced, which many managers found difficult to use. So the performance of the intensive care nurse, as well as many of her colleagues, has been revised in the 2021 salary review.

Missing connection to parental leave

In the ruling issued yesterday, Wednesday, December 7, the Labor Court chose to follow the line of the employer. The nurse considers that she was treated in the same way as the other nurse in the same situation.

According to AD, the fact that she did not receive more salary increases in 2021 had nothing to do with paternity leave.

Thus, the employer is acquitted and the Ombudsman for Discrimination must compensate Västmanland Region in the amount of SEK 202,400 for the court costs.

need for guidance

It’s a disappointment, of course. We stand by our assessment, says Karin Ahlstrand Oxhamre, the unit chief in DO who was the intensive care nurse representative.

She believes that guidance is needed in cases involving denial during paternity leave.

– We receive many reports related to him. So far this year alone, it’s been about 60 of those.