Employment contracts in Sweden: required terms, deadlines and lawful forms

The written information LAS section 6 c requires

The provision opens with a general rule: the employer must inform the employee in writing of every term that is of material importance to the employment. It then lists a minimum. The first group covers the names and addresses of employer and employee, the start date and the place of work, or a statement that the work is performed at different locations. It continues with a short description of the duties and a job title, the form of employment with its notice periods, end date or length of the probationary period, and the starting salary with each other pay component listed separately, how often it is paid and by what method. Normal daily or weekly working hours, the rules for overtime and additional hours, and the minimum notice the employee gets of changes to the schedule complete this first group, which is due by the seventh calendar day.

The second group may be delivered within one month of the first working day: any right to training provided by the employer, the length of paid holiday, the procedure when either party wants to end the employment, confirmation that social security contributions are paid to the state and what social protection the employer provides, and the applicable collective agreement. Several items, such as notice periods, pay, overtime and holidays, may be stated as a reference to the law or to a named collective agreement. A staffing agency must also give the name and address of each client company as soon as it is known. Two timing exceptions matter. For special fixed-term employment, the form and end date must be given when the contract is concluded, not a week later. And when a term changes, the employee must be informed in writing no later than the day the change takes effect.

Picking a lawful form of employment

Under LAS an employment is permanent unless the parties have agreed on one of the fixed-term forms the act permits. Section 5 lists three: special fixed-term employment (särskild visstidsanställning), which needs no stated reason; substitute employment (vikariat), where someone temporarily replaces an absent employee; and seasonal work. Section 6 adds probationary employment, which must be agreed and may last at most six months. If neither side gives notice by the end of the trial period, it continues as a permanent employment. Hourly contracts and on-call arrangements are not separate forms under Swedish law. They describe how pay and hours work, and the contract must still say which lawful form applies. A contract that labels a job fixed-term without legal support can be challenged, and a court may declare that the employment is permanent. Collective agreements can contain different rules, so check yours first.

The form also decides what happens later. A special fixed-term employment converts into a permanent one when the employee has worked more than twelve months in that form for the same employer within a five-year period. Time can also count beyond five years while the employee's special fixed-term, substitute or seasonal contracts with you follow one another, meaning each starts within six months of the previous one ending. A substitute employment converts after more than two years as a substitute within five years, while seasonal work has no conversion rule. Because conversion is automatic, anyone who uses fixed-term contracts should keep a record per person of dates and forms, and employees are entitled to a written summary of their fixed-term periods on request. An employer bound by a collective agreement must also inform the local union about fixed-term employments that last longer than one month. None of this applies to staff hired through a staffing agency, whose contracts are with the agency.

Collective agreements, foreign employers and frequent errors

If the company is bound by a collective agreement, the written information must name it, and the agreement will often govern pay, overtime compensation, notice periods and the length of probation. Collective agreements are allowed to deviate from several LAS provisions, so a contract drafted from the statute alone can be wrong for a unionised workplace. Without an agreement, occupational pension and collectively agreed injury and life insurance do not follow automatically, and the contract itself must say what the employee gets. International companies should note that these rules attach to the work performed in Sweden, regardless of where the employer is registered. For employees from outside the EU/EEA who need a work permit, the Swedish Migration Agency checks that salary and insurance match what sector agreements or customary terms provide, so the contract terms have to be set with that test in mind.

Most flawed contracts fail on missing information rather than poor wording. A probationary contract has no end date, so nobody knows when the trial period expires. A substitute contract does not say who is being replaced. Hourly pay is written down with no mention of holiday pay, salary appears as “by agreement” instead of an amount, and the overtime clause is left out entirely. Another recurring slip is drafting the contract a month into the job, after the seven-day deadline has passed. If the employee does not read Swedish, handing over a translation alongside the signed Swedish text avoids later disputes about what was understood. Companies that only need people for a period can skip contract drafting altogether by hiring through a staffing agency: the people Talea Work places with clients are employed by us, and we hold their contracts, payroll and employer obligations.