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DISCRIMINATION

Discrimination law fells only two in 20 years

Only two people have managed to bring an employer to justice for ethnic discrimination at work, despite the introduction of a Swedish law in 1994 aimed at helping those who fell victim to prejudice.

Published: 12 February 2013 17:00 CET

Hundreds of employers have been reported in Sweden on the grounds of workplace discrimination, yet the complaints seem to be falling on deaf ears.

Only two employers have been convicted by the Swedish Labour Court (Arbetsdomstolen, AD) since the law was introduced in 1994, reports the Dagens Arbete (DA) newspaper.

Between 2006 and 2011, there were 72 cases reported from within the industrial sector alone, however none of these made it to the Labour Court. Only eight of the cases resulted in a negotiated settlement.

Some of the employees affected, meanwhile, have been left seething at the ethnic discrimination that they feel is even harder to swallow than direct racism.

“If you hear someone in a bar yelling ‘blackie’ then it’s in some way easier to take,” Arman Bolourian, who was refused a job at ABB Machine, told the paper.

He was given the boot by his employer at the very end of a four-month recruitment process, despite having the right education and experience for the job. The boss had explained that he didn’t fit in with the group.

Annika Höög, a case officer at Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen, DO), said she regretted that the system doesn’t appear to help the people lodging complaints.

“It’s sad if it seems that you can’t win,” she told the paper.

“It’s not that we think it’s hopeless to take on ethnic discrimination cases, rather that we choose to investigate those that we think can set a precedent, or those that illustrate bigger societal problem.”

TT/The Local/og

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'Sweden should apologise to Tornedalian minority': Truth commission releases report

Stockholm’s policy of assimilation in the 19th and 20th centuries “harmed the minority and continues to hinder the defence of its language, culture and traditional livelihoods,” the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalaiset said in an article published in Sweden’s main daily Dagens Nyheter.

“Amends must be made in order to move forward,” it said, adding that “acknowledging the historic wrongdoings” should be a first step.

The commission, which began work in June 2020, was to submit a final report to the government on Wednesday.

Tornedalen is a geographical area in northeastern Sweden and northwestern Finland. The Tornedalian, Kven and Lantalaiset minority groups are often grouped under the name Tornedalians, who number around 50,000 in Sweden.

The commission noted that from the late 1800s, Tornedalian children were prohibited from using their mother tongue, meänkieli, in school and forced to use Swedish, a ban that remained in place until the 1960s.

From the early 1900s, some 5,500 Tornedalian children were sent away to Lutheran Church boarding schools “in a nationalistic spirit”, where their language and traditional dress were prohibited.

Punishments, violence and fagging were frequent at the schools, and the Tornedalian children were stigmatised in the villages, the commission said.

“Their language and culture was made out to be something shameful … (and) their self-esteem and desire to pass on the language to the next generation was negatively affected.”

The minority has historically made a living from farming, hunting, fishing and reindeer herding, though their reindeer herding rights have been limited over the years due to complexities with the indigenous Sami people’s herding rights.

“The minority feels that they have been made invisible, that their rights over their traditional livelihoods have been taken away and they now have no power of influence,” the commission wrote.

It recommended that the meänkieli language be promoted in schools and public service broadcasting, and the state “should immediately begin the process of a public apology”.

The Scandinavian country also has a separate Truth Commission probing discriminatory policies toward the Sami people.

That report is due to be published in 2025.

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