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Spotify not essential to society to justify night work in Sweden

1 min read
October 3, 2024

A Swedish court has denied Spotify the right to have employees work night shifts to maintain its audio streaming platform, ruling that the company’s services are not essential enough to society to warrant an exception to the country’s night work ban. The company moved the tasks abroad.

Spotify
Illustration | © Fath

The Administrative Court of Appeal of Sweden ruled against Spotify’s aim to have 250 employees work at night to ensure the streaming platform’s continuous operation.

The court’s decision, announced on September 30, upheld the Swedish Work Environment Authority’s February 2023 ruling that rejected Spotify’s exemption request from the night work ban, which the company unsuccessfully appealed.

According to court documents, Spotify argued that its platform requires around-the-clock monitoring to detect, prevent, and remedy errors and cyber-attacks, which may target users’ personal data, including payment details protected under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Spotify claimed that its Swedish engineers possess unique technical knowledge, necessitating their availability during night hours in case of emergency.

The company, which has about 600 million users worldwide, also contended that its audio streaming service, given its scale and global reach, serves public interest and that users increasingly listen to news and informative podcasts. Spotify believed this justified night work to “meet urgent social and service needs.”

Operating an audio streaming service doesn’t require night work

However, the Swedish Work Environment Authority and the Court of Appeal disagreed. The court stated that music streaming is not an important public interest or urgent service need that justifies an exemption from the night work ban.

The strongest argument for granting Spotify an exemption was preventing data leakage and cybersecurity threats, but the court found that the company did not prove night work was the only way to address these issues. Instead, it appeared primarily linked to limiting operational disruptions in its audio streaming service, a business reason rather than a socially important one.

Night work is prohibited in Sweden between midnight and 5 AM to protect workers’ health, with exceptions made for work essential to society.

Night work not covered by exemptions can still be performed through collective agreements, which Spotify has opposed. The company, which doesn’t recognize employee representatives in the country, would rather move tasks abroad, despite unions’ requests for a collective agreement after the work environment authority’s decision last year.

Spotify told Swedish news media that it has nearly completed schedule changes for approximately 250 employees, with no job losses as the work involves support functions, not full-time positions. The company didn’t mention where the tasks would be performed.

In December 2023, the Swedish music-streaming giant announced a cut of 1,500 jobs, or 17% of its workforce, as the company sought to reduce costs.

Clément Vérité

Clément is the executive editor and founder of Newsendip. He started in the media industry as a freelance reporter at 16 for a local French newspaper after school and has never left it. He later worked for seven years at The New York Times, notably as a data analyst. He holds a Master of Management in France and a Master of Arts in the United Kingdom in International Marketing & Communications Strategy. He has lived in France, the United Kingdom, and Italy.