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Din kunskap, Min hemlighet - en uppsats om problematiken kring företagshemligheter och konkurrensklausuler

Hansson, Linnea LU (2011) HARH16 20112
Department of Business Law
Abstract
Sweden’s business-market has change a lot during the recent decades, where the society have gone from being industrialbased to knowledgebased, where organizations has gone from hierarchy to “flat” and now we use brains instead of machines. This has led to an increasing need of protection for employers. Greater responsibility, closer customer relationships and indirect control from management has extended the span of workers to, among other things, take important decisions for the company. To make work effective for workers with this responsibility, management makes sure that the employee has all information needed, including secret documents. Hence, the number of employees that knows about business secrets has increased in many... (More)
Sweden’s business-market has change a lot during the recent decades, where the society have gone from being industrialbased to knowledgebased, where organizations has gone from hierarchy to “flat” and now we use brains instead of machines. This has led to an increasing need of protection for employers. Greater responsibility, closer customer relationships and indirect control from management has extended the span of workers to, among other things, take important decisions for the company. To make work effective for workers with this responsibility, management makes sure that the employee has all information needed, including secret documents. Hence, the number of employees that knows about business secrets has increased in many organizations. Increased control and insight into the company combined with individual knowledge can easily become a concern for the employer ones the employee ends the employment. Valuable knowledge can be lost since the employee easily can take confidential information with him, if not in document then in pure knowledge. Act (1990:409) on the protection of trade secrets was added to employers’ sake in the early 1990. The question now is if the law is equally applicable to the knowledge society as is was to the industrial.
During the employment the employer is protected against the risk of employees spreading secrets outside the company through their duty of loyalty. The duty of loyalty is a deeply rooted and widely accepted duty and it is of great importance when it comes to the employers and the employees’ relationship. The employer has a responsibility and an obligation to ensure a pleasant and safe working environment and to offer training and rehabilitation for needy employees. The employees have in their return a responsibility to put the employer’s interest above their own and to avoid a duty collision. In this paper, the two most important obligations have been highlighted, namely the duty to keep a secret and competition ban. These obligations are only active under the employment. After an ended employment, the employee is free to use personal knowledge, experiences and skills including secret information from the company. Most of the time employers want to prevent this from happening. To extend the duty of loyalty, a so-called non-competition clause is included in the employees’ contract. With the knowledge society improvement, the need for this kind of clauses has increased and today they are used more than ever. Knowledge about when the clause is alright to use and under what conditions is not obvious to all employees. The private sector is ruled by freedom of contract which affects the use of clauses. Especially this sector has been affected by the change on the business-market. More companies are crossing over to the private sector and freedom of contract is available for more employers and employees. This increases the need for a clearer regulation concerning clauses. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Utvecklingen som skett i Sverige de senaste decennierna, där vi har gått från industrisamhälle till kunskapssamhälle, från hierarki till platta organisationer och från maskin till hjärna har medfört ett ökat behov av skydd för arbetsgivare. Större ansvar, närmre relation med kunder samt indirekt kontroll från ledning och styrelse har vidgat arbetstagares utrymme i arbetslivet till att bl a fatta viktiga beslut åt företag. För effektivt och drivande arbete görs information och hemliga dokument tillgängligt för de arbetstagare som har detta ansvar. Därav har kretsen som känner till företagshemligheter ökat i många organisationer. Ökad insyn i företag, kombinerat med individuell kunskap och lärdom kan lätt bli ett orosmoment för arbetsgivaren... (More)
Utvecklingen som skett i Sverige de senaste decennierna, där vi har gått från industrisamhälle till kunskapssamhälle, från hierarki till platta organisationer och från maskin till hjärna har medfört ett ökat behov av skydd för arbetsgivare. Större ansvar, närmre relation med kunder samt indirekt kontroll från ledning och styrelse har vidgat arbetstagares utrymme i arbetslivet till att bl a fatta viktiga beslut åt företag. För effektivt och drivande arbete görs information och hemliga dokument tillgängligt för de arbetstagare som har detta ansvar. Därav har kretsen som känner till företagshemligheter ökat i många organisationer. Ökad insyn i företag, kombinerat med individuell kunskap och lärdom kan lätt bli ett orosmoment för arbetsgivaren vid en, för arbetstagaren, avslutad anställning. Värdefull kunskap kan för arbetsgivaren gå förlorad. Arbetstagaren kan enkelt ta med sig hemlig information från företaget, om inte i dokument så i sin kunskap. En individuell kunskap som till synes kan vara helt okänd för arbetsgivaren. Lagen (1990:409) om skydd för företagshemligheter tillkom för arbetsgivarens skull i början av 1990-talet. Frågan är om lagen i tillräcklig utsträckning är tillämpad för kunskapssamhället.
Under anställning skyddas arbetsgivaren mot risk för spridning av hemligheter genom den s k lojalitetsplikten. Lojalitetsplikten är en djupt rotad och allmänt accepterad plikt och den är av stor vikt när det kommer till arbetsgivares och arbetstagares relation. Arbetsgivaren har ansvar och skyldighet att se till att arbetsmiljön är trivsam och säker, att utbildning erbjuds och rehabilitering sköts för behövande. För arbetstagaren handlar det om att tillgodose arbetsgivarens intressen samt undvika att hamna i pliktkollision. I denna uppsats kommer de tyngsta förpliktelserna för arbetstagaren belysas, nämligen tystnadsplikten och konkurrensförbudet. Dessa förpliktelser gäller bara under anställningen. Efter avslutad anställning är arbetstagaren fri att nyttja sin personliga kunskap, erfarenhet och skicklighet, inkluderat den företagsspecifika information som tagits del av i anställning. Detta är något som arbetsgivare många gånger vill förhindra. För att förlänga lojalitetsplikten för arbetstagare införs s k konkurrensklausuler i anställningsavtal. En konkurrensklausul innehåller normalt även en sekretessklausul. Med kunskapssamhällets framfart har behovet av konkurrensklausuler ökat och idag närmast missbrukas de. Regler hur konkurrensklausuler får användas och tolkas är inte självklart för de olärda. Den privata sektorn genomsyras av avtalsfrihet vilket påverkar användningen av konkurrensklausuler. Med arbetsmarknadens förändring har den privata sektorn påverkats. Allt fler organisationer och företag privatiseras och avtalsfriheten blir tillgänglig för allt fler parter. Detta ökar behovet av en klarare och tydligare reglering om vad som gäller vid användning av konkurrens- och sekretessklausuler. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hansson, Linnea LU
supervisor
organization
course
HARH16 20112
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
företagshemligheter, lojalitetsplikt, konkurrensklausuler, avtalsfrihet, kunskapssamhälle
language
Swedish
id
2202188
date added to LUP
2011-11-14 14:41:36
date last changed
2011-11-14 14:41:36
@misc{2202188,
  abstract     = {{Sweden’s business-market has change a lot during the recent decades, where the society have gone from being industrialbased to knowledgebased, where organizations has gone from hierarchy to “flat” and now we use brains instead of machines. This has led to an increasing need of protection for employers. Greater responsibility, closer customer relationships and indirect control from management has extended the span of workers to, among other things, take important decisions for the company. To make work effective for workers with this responsibility, management makes sure that the employee has all information needed, including secret documents. Hence, the number of employees that knows about business secrets has increased in many organizations. Increased control and insight into the company combined with individual knowledge can easily become a concern for the employer ones the employee ends the employment. Valuable knowledge can be lost since the employee easily can take confidential information with him, if not in document then in pure knowledge. Act (1990:409) on the protection of trade secrets was added to employers’ sake in the early 1990. The question now is if the law is equally applicable to the knowledge society as is was to the industrial.
During the employment the employer is protected against the risk of employees spreading secrets outside the company through their duty of loyalty. The duty of loyalty is a deeply rooted and widely accepted duty and it is of great importance when it comes to the employers and the employees’ relationship. The employer has a responsibility and an obligation to ensure a pleasant and safe working environment and to offer training and rehabilitation for needy employees. The employees have in their return a responsibility to put the employer’s interest above their own and to avoid a duty collision. In this paper, the two most important obligations have been highlighted, namely the duty to keep a secret and competition ban. These obligations are only active under the employment. After an ended employment, the employee is free to use personal knowledge, experiences and skills including secret information from the company. Most of the time employers want to prevent this from happening. To extend the duty of loyalty, a so-called non-competition clause is included in the employees’ contract. With the knowledge society improvement, the need for this kind of clauses has increased and today they are used more than ever. Knowledge about when the clause is alright to use and under what conditions is not obvious to all employees. The private sector is ruled by freedom of contract which affects the use of clauses. Especially this sector has been affected by the change on the business-market. More companies are crossing over to the private sector and freedom of contract is available for more employers and employees. This increases the need for a clearer regulation concerning clauses.}},
  author       = {{Hansson, Linnea}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Din kunskap, Min hemlighet - en uppsats om problematiken kring företagshemligheter och konkurrensklausuler}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}