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4.3 Year 0, part II: Merger preparations with the 3AG (2002/2003)

4.3.4 Controversial dismissals

Already at the kick-off in May, 2002, personnel were informed that nobody would be made redundant, except for some administrative staff.

The Committee on the Constitution referred to legislation, called “the transition rules”, that would guarantee this. 44

All employees are covered by the transition rules and will thus be given employment with the new authority.

This was written in the internal staff magazine RRK-nytt (no. 2003/02, issued on 18 February, 2003). A union representative explained in January, 2003, that the 3AG were very discrete about redundancies among the administrative staff – “people count on being transferred”.

In March, 2003, an RRV auditor (Rose) explained that there was a rumour about a “Black List” of auditors who would be made redundant:

43Documentation from presentation at a conference for all RRV and PA personnel 7 March, 2003. Title: “Riksrevisionen – Den nya organisationen växer fram.”

44Regler om övergång av verksamhet, §6b Lagen om AnställningsSkydd (LAS)

In strange ways it has turned out that there is a list of people who will not be part of the new organisation. […] This means that they try to get rid of people they do not want, as they arrange with the new organization. This is rather difficult to deal with, for they do not want to discuss it openly.

The auditor explained that RRV had a history of searching for scapegoats, and saw this “Black List” as yet an example of such a notion:

There is always a number of individuals, that they think everything will become better without. But at this place it will not become better when they are gone, for then there will just be new scapegoats, and then it is better if they are gone… So the situation is very bad at the moment.

As this rumour spread, personnel became increasingly worried. An auditor explained that there were cases where single auditors were being subjected to mobbing, as he perceived it. This was probably aimed at making this auditor leave before the merger, he reasoned, while emphasizing that it was a competent auditor, so he really did not understand why he would have to leave.

In June, personnel had been assigned to positions with the new organization, and managers had been appointed. A number of them had not been given a position. According to protocols from negotiations with unions (10, 13, and 19 June, 2003), there were 12 people within the administration who were given notice due to lack of assignments (Swedish: arbetsbrist). Apart from these, there were a number of people who had not been given a position in the RiR organization for other reasons. Some of these, it was argued, did not meet the formal requirements for auditors at RiR that had been established in the spring of 2003. Some of them were former managers, who would not become managers at RiR.

On 12 June, 2003, there was a conference for RRV personnel, followed by a gala dinner at the City Hall in Stockholm. This was called a

“Grande Finale”, and would mark the end of the RRV era (staff magazine Insaid, 2003/04). An RRV auditor (Rose) explained how she, and a number of others, had been taken aside during the conference to a meeting where they were notified that they would not continue to the new authority. The celebration in the evening totally lost its glimmer,

for these employees, she explained, adding that it was humiliating that they were given this message on this special day and occasion.

Many employees were annoyed that it had taken so long to decide who would be made redundant. Rose explained:

They waited until people left RRV, so that no one could react, that is my conclusion. It can also be a general incompetence, that they could not get this done in time. But they started to look at this already in the autumn.

Just after the “Grande Finale”, Midsummer was celebrated in Sweden, and many employees then went on vacation. Those who had applied for positions as managers, but did not have one, were also annoyed that it was not until the Midsummer week that they had received response to their application. These former managers were not given a formal position with RiR, and this was taken as a sign by many that they were no longer wanted there. After RiR had been formed, many of them were also invited to negotiations, where they were offered monetary compensation to leave.

The remaining personnel described, long after the merger, how they had been offended by these dismissals. In the employee survey May 2004, a RiR employee wrote:45

In the transition to the new authority people were dismissed on arbitrary grounds. It was quite obvious that it was more about lack of loyalty than about the alleged lack of competence. With such a damaging propaganda you do not create an environment that makes people openly express what they think. We all know that we can be the ones to go the next time.

Fear to express objections was a problem at RiR during all the years following the merger.

45The Swedish word ”draksådd” was used in this quote, it is translated with

“damaging propaganda”. This means the spreading of damaging opinions/doctrines, or an act that has fateful consequences.