Swedish workplace magazine Arbetarskydd has highlighted an unusual weakness in the position of Sweden’s conscripts: although Pliktrådet represents them nationally, it is not a trade union and conscripts are not employees of the Armed Forces. Conscripts do not automatically receive every protection attached to employee status. Most strikingly, the Swedish government confirmed in 2025 that conscripts are excluded from the Armed Forces’ statutory whistleblower system because they are neither employees nor considered to be participating in an employment-related context. Pliktrådet says legal knowledge among conscripts remains inadequate and has documented cases involving questionable punishments and allegedly unlawful restrictions on leave, while campaigning for an independent whistleblower mechanism.
Quoted in the article the new president of Pliktrådet, Malte Netterheim points out on the struggle the organisation has in ensuring the rights of the conscripts are protected.
“One of the biggest problems is that they perform their military service for a limited period of time, so there is no organisational memory. Nor do we have members; we represent them automatically.”
He says that although the Swedish Armed Forces have a duty to inform conscripts about their rights and obligations, according to Pliktrådet this is, in practice, hardly done at all. “There is often a formal briefing, but it is usually very inadequate and far from comprehensive. The focus is more on obligations than on rights.”
Pliktrådet also sees conscripts entering the Armed Forces with an inaccurate picture of what military service entails, shaped by popular culture.
“That makes them more inclined to accept things, because they have no reasonable idea of how things are supposed to work and find it difficult to speak up because of their lack of knowledge. That creates risks in conscripts’ working environment.”
The most shocking is the statistic Netterheim cites regarding whether conscripts are treated in accordance with regulations.
“They are fully complied with at only one of 28 units, and that is completely unacceptable, frankly. (…) there are often shortcomings at the units because there is no legal expertise. Officers are not trained in conscripts’ rights either.”
Netterheim mentions also in the article that, according to their surveys, collective punishment occurs at 14 of 28 units, while unlawful restrictions on freedom occur at 18 of 28 units.
“There are also so-called ‘grey punishments’ that do not fall within the law. It systematically happens at units that conscripts are denied medical care because an officer believes they do not need it. Conscripts have a right to medical care. (…) It varies somewhat from year to year, but some officers may remember that they themselves were not allowed to leave their building, and then they teach the same thing. It is not very surprising when officers are not trained in conscripts’ obligations and rights. In general, there is a lack of legal support out at the units.”
The most worrying is the conclusion that Pliktrådet is aware of only a fraction of what happens at the units.
Read the entire piece in Arbetarskydd.
