The aim of this essay is to examine the legal regulation of the Labour laws regarding the psychosocial work environment for employees, as well as the responsibility that the employer has regarding this. The essay also aims to examine how, in the future, the new regulation from the Swedish Work Authority regarding the organization and social work environment can change the responsibility of the employer. The methodology of the study includes a juridical and a legal sociology method to analyze the material. This, in turn, will answer the research questions. The laws of the work environment act are based on the directive from the EU about the work laws. Besides there are regulations complementing this stating the responsibility of the employers regarding the employees. Throughout the essay, the aim continues to examine what changes the new regulation can make. It also continues to examine how this could change women’s psychological health. The analysis of the essay points out the different ways of how the new relegation can change the laws and secondly, the outcome of the work environment today. The analysis discusses how this can change the responsibility of the employer in regard to the work environment laws. The conclusions are that there is a regulation through the work environment law regarding the psychosocial environment. What there are not are examples of different concrete measures for the Employer to take action, in order for it to improve. There may be changes in the future regarding the psychosocial environment, especially for women. But before the new regulation is made valid, and because there are not any cases of this to date, it is hard to make a solid conclusion.

Our physical, social and mental health are all important for our wellbeing and no one should feel ill or mistreated because of their work situation. Despite this, an increasing number of people are suffering from unhealthy workload or victimization at work. Mental illness is an increasing problem and cost society around 70 billion SEK each year, 50 % of which can be related to loss in production caused by sick-leave. In addition to the immeasurable human costs, Sweden now faces one of its greatest challenges in modern time. In order to counteract this development, the Swedish Work Environmental Authority released new provisions regarding the organisational and social work environment called AFS 2015:4 which are aimed at all activities where an employee perform work on the employers account. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of difficulties and possibilities when revising current work practices to fulfil the provisions. The thesis uses a case study approach taking place in an organisation within Svevia, a Swedish construction company, using a literature review, a document analysis, interviews and a questionnaire. The findings indicate that even though the organisation had major efforts put into their work environment management, there were improvements to be made regarding the organisational and social work environment. Furthermore, what can be improved and how the organisation can support the improvements to fulfill the provisions and work towards a better work environment is concluded. The results are of great practical use not only to the case organisation but to all organisations similar in nature.

Denna studie grundar sig i Arbetsmiljöverkets föreskrift om organisatorisk och social arbetsmiljö, AFS 2015:4, som tagits fram i syfte att främja en god arbetsmiljö och förebygga risk för ohälsa. Utifrån de ökande antalet anmälningarna om arbetssjukdom med stress och psykiska påfrestningar som orsak ligger fokus i studien på ohälsosam arbetsbelastning och om det inom kommunen finns kunskaper att förebygga och hantera dessa risker. Syftet har varit undersöka hur kommunen praktiskt arbetar med föreskriften inom tre organisatoriska nivåer och hur de anställda uppfattar sin psykosociala arbetsmiljö. Fokus låg även på att undersöka hur de anställda är delaktiga i ovanstående arbetsmiljöarbete. Studien utgick från ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv med en kvalitativ ansats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. En gruppintervju bestående av två medarbetare som representerade HR-avdelningen och två individuella intervjuer på chefsnivå. På medarbetarnivån genomfördes två gruppintervjuer med tre medarbetare vardera från de avdelningarna som respektive chef leder. Av studien framgår att goda resultat kan uppnås i den psykosociala arbetsmiljön när alla organisatoriska nivåer integrerar frågorna i sitt systematiska arbetsmiljöarbete och upprättar rutiner för att förebygga och hantera ohälsosam arbetsbelastning. Studien bekräftar att socialt stöd, kunskap, kommunikation och delaktighet är viktiga framgångsfaktorer för en god psykosocial arbetsmiljö. I diskussionen lyfts vikten av att avsätta tid i syfte att förebygga ohälsa och förslag lyfts om att använda krav/kontroll/stöd-modellen som verktyg att analysera och reflektera kring de anställdas arbetsbelastning. / This study is based on the Swedish work environment authority statute book about organisational and social work environment, AFS 2015:4 provisions, that has been developed to promote a good work environment and prevent risks of ill health. Because of the increasing numbers of work-related ill health due to stress and mental strain, the focus in this study was unhealthy workloads and if there is knowledge in the municipality about preventing and dealing with these risks. The aim was to examine how the municipality practically work with the provision within three organizational levels and how the employees perceive their psychosocial work environment. There were also focus on investigating how employees participate in the above environment work. The study was based on a hermeneutic perspective with a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. One group interview consisting two employees representing the HR department and two individual interviews at the managerial level. At the employee level, two group interviews were held with three employees from the departments headed by the managers. The outcome of the study shows that good results can be obtained in the psychosocial work environment when all organizational levels integrates these issues in their systematic work environment and establish routines to prevent and dealing with unhealthy workload. The study confirms that social support, knowledge, communication and employee participation are important factors for a healthy psychosocial work environment. The discussion shows the importance of taking time for preventing ill health and suggestions about using the demand/control/support-model as a tool for analysing and reflect over the employee workload.