This is not true, everyone is entitled to severance package based on how long they worked at the company. There is an option that employee signs an agreement where they basically give up their rights to sue or take severance from the company (the government still pays severance if they were fired, of course if the fired employer decides to ask for it).
There were a lot of discussions regarding this, but you can look into labor laws in Europe, all countries has the about the same laws, even the so called "third world countries" on European continent has these laws aligned with european union countries. So has nothing to do with negative PR or doing the right thing, and everything to do with Sweden labor laws.