Företagshälsovården som en oberoende expertresurs

En rättslig analys

Abstract

Occupational health services are fundamentally mandated by the employer, who both chooses and pays for the services. This creates a potential conflict between acting in the interests of the employer and meeting the support and intervention needs of employees. According to Chapter 3, Section 2 c of the Swedish Work Environment Act, occupational health services are to act as an independent expert resource in matters of work environment and rehabilitation. The article shows that despite this regulation, there are no direct mechanisms to ensure compliance, which makes the principle of independence weak from a legal standpoint. It is, therefore, argued that lawmakers should consider introducing explicit legal requirements for occupational health services to maintain their independence and for employers to be obliged to respect this independence, regardless of organisational structure. A regulation does not automatically guarantee an independent operation, but it represents a symbolically and legally significant measure to promote and protect such independence. The legitimacy of occupational health services fundamentally depends on their ability to maintain independence.