Spotify says it’s moving ‘parts’ of 250 Sweden-based roles abroad, following a court ruling denying SPOT’s request to allow its engineers based in the company’s home market to work night shifts.
In response to the ruling by The Administrative Court of Appeal, Spotify’s Chief Human Resources Officer and GM of Sweden, Katarina Berg, penned an article for Sweden’s Dagens Industri on Friday (October 4), claiming that “outdated bureaucracy” in Sweden threatens the market’s position “as one of Europe’s and even the world’s leading tech hubs”.
Berg added that the court’s decision means that Spotify has “moved parts of 250 positions to other countries,” and that “future recruitment of engineers will unfortunately mainly take place outside of Sweden”.
Added Berg: “This not only means a loss of income for the individuals concerned, but also for Sweden’s tax revenue.”
There are strict rules regarding the number of hours and times of day that employees are allowed to work in Sweden.
Night work – between midnight and 5 a.m. – is prohibited unless it is deemed necessary for key services in the market to keep functioning (think public services, healthcare, transport, etc.) or under other special circumstances.
The ban on nightwork can be waived, either via an exemption granted by Sweden’s Work Environment Authority or through collective agreements (via a union for example). (Seperately, Breakit reported last summer that negotiations between Spotify and unions in the market had broken down).
Spotify applied for an exemption to the ban on nighttime work at the start of 2023 for engineering staff to carry out emergency work on the streaming platform’s systems between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority rejected Spotify’s application in February 2023 and fined Spotify for breaching the Working Hours Act. Last week’s ruling by The Administrative Court of Appeal upheld the Swedish Work Environment Authority’s February 2023 decision.
Spotify’s Katarina Berg argued in her article for Dagens Industri last week that due to Spotify’s global availability in 184 countries and audience of 626 million MAUs, “artists, podcasters, writers and advertisers, as well as our users, expect an experience that works flawlessly 24/7 in all time zones of the world”.
Berg added the platform requires, therefore, “to have engineers available on standby to quickly deal with potential intrusion attempts that could compromise sensitive personal data or resolve any operational issues that may arise”.
Elsewhere in the article, Berg indicated that Spotify “call[s] for a review of the rules around night work and emergency service in the tech sector.”
“Since the administrative court has denied permission for night work in Sweden, we’re proceeding with the relocation of this crucial support function to other countries outside Sweden.”
Spotify spokesperson
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek doesn’t appear to have commented on the situation publicly yet, but he has ‘liked’ a comment published via LinkedIn by The Public Policy Manager of Sweden’s Federation of Business Owners. In the post, which Ek ‘liked’, Pernilla Norlin suggested that an “outdated approach” is “prevent[ing]” companies from developing and conducting their business in Sweden.
Norlin added: ‘Now Spotify is moving 250 jobs abroad, a completely unnecessary blow to Sweden as an entrepreneurial country.”
A Spotify spokesperson told MBW today (October 8): “As a global audio tech platform we must have engineers available on-call to ensure uninterrupted availability for millions of creators and listeners around the world.
“Since the administrative court has denied permission for night work in Sweden, we’re proceeding with the relocation of this crucial support function to other countries outside Sweden.”
Spotify’s spokesperson confirmed that there have been no job losses as a result of the court ruling, and that it’s only the night-time/on-call portion of those 250 Spotify workers’ full-time jobs that have been moved abroad.
Spotify has approximately 1,500 employees in Stockholm.
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