The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth has paid out more than SEK 504 million between March and December last year to over 900 companies in Gävleborg that have applied for compensation for short-term work.

Among the ten companies that received the most money, three companies are part of the Sandvik Group, they have received more than SEK 73 million in compensation for short-term work.

In an email to SVT Gävleborg, the press manager at Sandvik Johannes Hellström writes:

“Short-term redundancy support aimed at helping companies retain staff and skills.

This is also what the support has been used for at Sandvik, to cover part of the wage cost in the short-term work system and avoid staff reductions ”.

A large company like Sandvik, have you really needed to seek compensation?

“At the most critical initial phase of the pandemic last year, we saw very sharp reductions in demand in many of our operations, and thanks to the redundancy support, we were then able to minimize notice.

We chose not to take part in redundancy support from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth after the third quarter of last year when we saw that the market stabilized ”.

Until now, there has been secrecy over which companies have received compensation for short-term work, but from 21 October 2021, the decisions for short-term support are public.