The employer refusing to pay wages

Hi all, I arrived to Sweden with EU passport to work in a restaurant in Sweden, as part of the kitchen staff during seasonal work. However, I quit job prematurely due to agressive and controlling behavior of the employer, as well as the chef of the kitchen. Upon quitting the job, my employer told me that he was currently busy, and that I would get paid for my work as soon as he found the time, and that I was free to leave accomodation. However, when I left accomodation and arrived to another city, the employer called me, threatned me for not giving the period of job notice first, and to my question if and when he intends to pay me for the work done, he told me our communication finished and hung up on me. The employer has not responded to my phone call, sms or e-mail for 12 days,  until the day before yesterday he sent me a message on viber, stating that he would call me when he has less work, and that I make sure to behave nicely. This makes no sense to me, as I have always treated him respectfully - never raised my voice or insulted him in any way, but he is the one who disrespected and verbally abused me. In addition, there is nothing to talk about - he simply needs to pay me my wages on my bank account, as he had initially promised before I left,  but he is either stalling, or not intending to do at all.

I am not member of  workers' union in Sweden, and have not made any written contract with the employer. We had only made an informal agreement related to period of my seasonal work for him, as well as my monthly salary, but we never discussed or agreed upon other issues such as the period of job notice.
I am considering to file a complaint at court for him failing to pay my wages, but I am not sure about the period of time he legally has until he decides to pay me (1 month, 2 weeks? ). I do not want my complaint to court to be premature and thus terminated (it has been two weeks since I quit work), but at the same time, I do not want to leave Sweden until I have any kind of guarantee he would pay me for the work done.
Any kind of help or advice would be helpful - but please, only if you are truly familiar with Swedish laws for this particular situation.
Hi Annabelle,

Welcome to expat.com!

Sorry to hear about your situation. I hope someone can assist soon.

Vero
Expat.com

Hi all, I arrived to Sweden with EU passport to work in a restaurant in Sweden, as part of the kitchen staff during seasonal work. However, I quit job prematurely due to agressive and controlling behavior of the employer, as well as the chef of the kitchen. Upon quitting the job, my employer told me that he was currently busy, and that I would get paid for my work as soon as he found the time, and that I was free to leave accomodation. However, when I left accomodation and arrived to another city, the employer called me, threatned me for not giving the period of job notice first, and to my question if and when he intends to pay me for the work done, he told me our communication finished and hung up on me. The employer has not responded to my phone call, sms or e-mail for 12 days,  until the day before yesterday he sent me a message on viber, stating that he would call me when he has less work, and that I make sure to behave nicely. This makes no sense to me, as I have always treated him respectfully - never raised my voice or insulted him in any way, but he is the one who disrespected and verbally abused me. In addition, there is nothing to talk about - he simply needs to pay me my wages on my bank account, as he had initially promised before I left,  but he is either stalling, or not intending to do at all.

I am not member of  workers' union in Sweden, and have not made any written contract with the employer. We had only made an informal agreement related to period of my seasonal work for him, as well as my monthly salary, but we never discussed or agreed upon other issues such as the period of job notice.
I am considering to file a complaint at court for him failing to pay my wages, but I am not sure about the period of time he legally has until he decides to pay me (1 month, 2 weeks? ). I do not want my complaint to court to be premature and thus terminated (it has been two weeks since I quit work), but at the same time, I do not want to leave Sweden until I have any kind of guarantee he would pay me for the work done.
Any kind of help or advice would be helpful - but please, only if you are truly familiar with Swedish laws for this particular situation.
- @Annabelle xx

If you left the job of your free will and thus broke your contract you will and unlikely to receive any money.

Should you take it further to courts, you will lose and be out of money even more.

Cut your losses and say live another day.

@SimCityAT  I have clearly stated that  I did not sign any contract with the employer, and I had good reasons to leave work.  I don't think you took the time to read my post before replying, and you don't sound like someone who has higher education level and understands swedish laws and workers' rights.  Not to mention that your response seems inconsiderate. Next time if you're not familiar with the topic do not bother to reply, thanks!

Verbal agreements are also valid as written agreements and if any special demands or terms had not been discussed in a verbal agreement as the case of period of notice in your agreement, then it automatically goes to the basic agreement according to the collective agreement which is 14 days of notice period if the agreed seasonal work period is less than three months and it can be upto 30 days if the agreed period is more than three months and it can also vary little bit depending on different fields and different geographical areas for instance if the working place is situated on a distance island, the employer for obvious reasons has hard time to find someone to replace within such a short period etc.

Normally an employer cannot keep a wage more than one month i.e wage of the month of august must pay before 27 of september. 

@Gästen  Hi Gasten, thanks for your response. The employer didn't mention any period of notice - he accepted my resignation and told me I was free to leave accomodation any time soon, and that he would pay me out as soon as he found the time. It was only after I left accomodation and arrived to another city that the called me, threatened me with the period of notice and told me our communication finished.  I believe his obligation was to tell me about the period of notice before leaving the job, not accepting my resignation, and then blackmailing me with the period of notice aftwerwards.
In any case, I do think he is still legally obliged to pay me my wages, or is there a Swedish law that suggests otherwise?
I just can't possibly imagine that in any civilized country the employer can get away with not paying the worker for 168 hours of work.

@Gästen  Hi Gasten, thanks for your response. The employer didn't mention any period of notice - he accepted my resignation and told me I was free to leave accomodation any time soon, and that he would pay me out as soon as he found the time. It was only after I left accomodation and arrived to another city that the called me, threatened me with the period of notice and told me our communication finished.  I believe his obligation was to tell me about the period of notice before leaving the job, not accepting my resignation, and then blackmailing me with the period of notice aftwerwards.
In any case, I do think he is still legally obliged to pay me my wages, or is there a Swedish law that suggests otherwise?
I just can't possibly imagine that in any civilized country the employer can get away with not paying the worker for 168 hours of work.

- @Annabelle xx

Hi and welcome.

I think in most civilised countries employers can't get away with doing what you claim to have happened.  The important thing when deciding any legal matter is the evidence, so if you go to court, your lawyer will need evidence, word of mouth will almost certainly be countered by similar evidence from the accused.  The fact you have been working without a contract may well come under scrutiny.

My advice is to go and speak to a specialist (none of us here are lawyers); present what you have and he/she will tell you their professional opinion as to whether you have a case that will stand up to court scrutiny.  It may well cost you an hour's legal fees, but it's better to know where you stand before you end up with a huge legal bill in court with no recompense.

I hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

@Gästen  Hi Gasten, thanks for your response. The employer didn't mention any period of notice - he accepted my resignation and told me I was free to leave accomodation any time soon, and that he would pay me out as soon as he found the time. It was only after I left accomodation and arrived to another city that the called me, threatened me with the period of notice and told me our communication finished.  I believe his obligation was to tell me about the period of notice before leaving the job, not accepting my resignation, and then blackmailing me with the period of notice aftwerwards.
In any case, I do think he is still legally obliged to pay me my wages, or is there a Swedish law that suggests otherwise?
I just can't possibly imagine that in any civilized country the employer can get away with not paying the worker for 168 hours of work.

- @Annabelle xx

Yes according to Swedish labor law he is still obliged to pay. But he also have a solid right to claim indemnity for his lost incomes because of your breach of contract. And I guess that amount would be much more higher than your wages after tax. So he knows that you would  sooner or later leave this case because in the end you are the one who will lose more if you carry on. However he should have inform you all these when you asked to leave the job. If I were you I would apologize for my mistake and ask him to take half of my wages as a compensation so that I will get something out of it instead of losing much more from my own pocket. All the best!
@Gästen  um.. no. He doesn't have an solid right (you probably meant "solid grounds") for making such complaint as he didn't suffer any losses after I left,  and I didn't simply "breach the contract,"  as you keep presenting it - I left because he yelled at me and bullied me at work,
which is punishable by Swedish laws and I can sue him for this.  And thanks for your advice, but I didn't do any mistake and I would never apologize to someone like that or accept only "half" of my earned wages - I cannot turn back the time and erase half of my services, effort and time invested in work. This is 21st century, and the employer does not have the option to pay the worker for their services - it's his obligation to do so.
Legally, he has two days left to pay me out. If he doesn't do it I will certainly file a complaint to the court and for me this is not questionable. I was only curious about the legal time the employer has until he is obliged to pay me out, as this was a piece of info that was a bit harder to find online. However, in the meantime, I have gathered all the information I need.  All the best to you too!
It is too bad that she left the forum during the discussion. However if she continue to read this thread anyway or for others who read this topic in the future, make sure to get your contract in writing and discuss all your demands and terms before you start the employment. And if something happens like in her case yelling and bullying or anything else that you don't like then make sure to make your complaints while you still in the job and quite afterwards if it is hard to carry on. Of course as she said there are heavy rights for employees in sweden in accordance with this law act https://www.government.se/government-po … ngsskydd/  But an employee must also follow the rules and needed steps to get the best out of the law act otherwise it does not help much.