What should you do when your boss discriminates?

AnswerThe employer has a legal obligation to ensure that employees have a good working environment and that no one is harassed or discriminated against at work. When it is the manager who is discriminating, you should go to the manager above, and if that does not help, you should go higher up the hierarchy and up to top management. Your colleague can bring a colleague or the safety representative to that conversation. It is important to inform the employer of the situation as soon as possible.

The employer is obliged to do the following:

1. Investigate the circumstances
2. Tell the person who is discriminating that they do not accept victimization in the workplace
3. Take such measures as may reasonably be required to prevent the victimization.

There should be procedures in place in the organization on how to deal with victimization, which employees should be aware of.

Should the conversation with the manager's supervisor or higher up not help, the safety representative has the power to demand in a more formal way that the employer take measures so that the differential treatment stops. The safety representative has this power under Chapter 6. 6 a § of the Work Environment Act. One way to address work environment problems is to bring in external help such as occupational health services.

If the employer does not act on the formal request, the safety representative has the option of making a report to the Swedish Work Environment Authority. You can read more here:

The safety representative's powers to request a work environment investigation External link, opens in new window.