Safety representatives
The employer and employees work together to create a good work environment. The employer has the main responsibility for the work environment and the safety representative (SKO) is the employees' elected representative in work environment issues. Together they work to prevent ill health and accidents in the workplace.
List of current safety representatives: Safety representatives October 2025 (in Swedish) (pdf 173 kB)
List of current student safety representatives: Student safety representatives 2025 (in Swedish) (pdf 356 kB)
List of currents participants in the Safety Committee: Participants in KTH's safety committee (in Swedish) (pdf 140 kB)
The safety representative's duties
According to the Work Environment Act (1977:1160) and KTH's collaboration agreement, the safety representative has the following duties.
Safety representative
- Represents the employees, including temporary and contract employees, within their area of protection.
- Monitors the work environment within their area of protection and works towards a satisfactory work environment in collaboration with the employer.
- Within their area of protection, points out deficiencies in the work environment.
- Participates in safety rounds.
- Participates in and collaborates in planning and changes within the work environment, for example regarding premises, equipment, working methods and the use of chemical substances.
- Assists in and works towards the reporting of occupational injuries and incidents.
- Have knowledge of the content of work environment legislation and other legislation that applies to the current operation, and have knowledge of the content of central and local parties' agreements etc. that are significant from a work environment perspective.
Chief safety representative
In addition, the chief safety representative has additional duties:
- Coordinate the activities of the safety representatives and act as a link between the safety committee and the safety representatives.
- Serve on the Safety Committee.
- Participate in safety rounds if the safety representative is unable to.
- May act in the place of the safety representative if there is no safety representative at the workplace.
Student safety representative
Represents and stands by the students at KTH. Students are considered employees. (AML Chapter 1 Section 3) Student Safety Representatives (SSO) are appointed by the students in each individual section. In the event that there is no SSO in a section, the students are represented by the Chief Student Safety Representative. The SSO's area of protection is section-wise, i.e. all places where the students of the section are located. The students have two seats on KTH's Safety Committee and appoint representatives themselves from the SSO population. The student safety representatives have the same rights and obligations as the employee safety representatives except for the right to stop work. Like safety representatives, they may not unauthorizedly disclose what they have learned during the assignment and which may lead to harm. (AML Chapter 7 Section 13). New SSO's must be registered with the employer, i.e. KTH. The employer (KTH) must notify the SSO of significant changes within the representative's area of responsibility. The representative has the right to leave from their studies for their duties.
Chief student safety representative (also THS Study Environment Manager)
In addition to the rights and obligations of the SSO, the chief student safety representative has the entire KTH as their protection area and can replace a student safety representative. The chief student safety representative is appointed by the students through their student union. It is part of the role of THS Study Environment Manager to be chief student safety representative. The role includes coordinating SSO and initiating education and representing all KTH students. The chief student safety representative has access rights to the environments where students stay during their studies.
- The access rights include having an access card.
- The card must be time-limited to the current term of office (usually 1 year).
- Must exercise caution in all environments and may be accompanied if necessary, but access cannot be denied.
Safety organization
The employer and the employee organizations agree on how the safety representative organization should look like; as a rule, there should be a chief safety representative for each school and the support services (ref. V-2006-1447 doss 83).
The safety representative's area of protection is determined by the employee organizations for each individual safety representative and can, for example, be geographical, organizational or divided by occupational group.
Registration and deregistration
Safety representatives are appointed jointly by the employee organizations. Election of safety representatives is registered according to KTH's procedure for registration of safety representatives (in Swedish) .
Student safety representatives and chief student safety representatives are appointed by the student union at KTH (THS), THS registers these with the Human Resources Department (see contact below).
Term of office
At KTH, safety representatives are appointed for four-year terms (ref. V-2006-1447, doss 83). The term of office for student safety representatives is decided by THS and usually lasts one year.
Compensation
For the assignment as chief safety representative, compensation is paid to the school and the support services (ref. HS-2025-2852).
Training for safety representatives
The Human Resources Department offers and recommends that safety representatives who are employed at KTH undergo training in the work environment and safety representative law.
Contact
The Labour Law, Work Environment and Equality Office Group, Human Resources Department, Support Services. email: arbetsratt-arbetsmiljo@kth.se
Study Environment Manager in THS Student Union Management, tel: 08-790 98 95, email: studiemiljo@ths.kth.se