Klarna's management and CEO have repeatedly claimed that last week's large savings package, which affects ten percent of the workforce, does not contain any redundancies.

The fact that the company did not inform the local trade unions before the package is therefore not a violation of Swedish legislation, according to the company management.  

Klarna has not given notice of dismissal but hopes to reach an agreement with the employees concerned.

Should a redundancy arise, it will be handled in accordance with laws and regulations ", writes Klarna's communications manager Filippa Bolz in an email to SVT.

"Be very clear that you are leaving the company"

SVT has talked to about ten of the employees that Klarna wants to get rid of.

They all tell similar stories.

How they got an email where they were called to a meeting with a boss.

At the meeting, they were asked to sign an agreement in which they terminate themselves for a few months' severance pay.  

At the same time as they received the email, the people SVT spoke to lost access to Klarna's internal communication tools.

For example, they were excluded from Google drive.

The meeting tool Teams was also blocked together with parts of emails and chat functions. 

- They were very clear that you should leave the company.

You have no choice, says one of the employees that Klarna wants to get rid of.  

The person says that he is not called to meetings and that he has no opportunity to perform his work.

The expert: Would push it to the Labor Court

According to labor law expert Kurt Junesjö, who has previously been a lawyer at LO-TCO Rättskydd, among other things, blocking internal communication channels is the same as being deprived of the keys to the workplace.  

- Such a suspension can be considered dismissal.

If I were involved as a lawyer, I would pursue this to the Labor Court and demand damages in violation of the obligation to negotiate and demand that the suspension be lifted temporarily, he says.   

One of the Klarna employees that SVT spoke to says that he will eventually quit anyway. 

- It feels really boring.

There are hopefully companies that take care of their employees better, the person says.

In an email from Klarna's communications department, the company writes that:

“We are a bank and handle sensitive data and systems.

For security reasons, access to certain data, documents and systems has been restricted to those notified that their role no longer exists. "

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"The most important thing for me was to create clarity as soon as possible," says Sebastian Siemiatkowski.

Hear Klarna's CEO about the redundancies in the clip.

Photo: SVT