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Processing annual leave

På svenska

We have collected information for managers about scheduling annual leave and saved days.

Contents on this page:

The Swedish Annual Leave Act primarily aims to provide all employees with the opportunity to take paid leave for the purposes of rest and recreation. The Act contains three benefits: annual leave, holiday pay and compensation in lieu of annual leave. All employees in Sweden have the right to 25 days, i.e. five weeks of annual leave. Through the General Agreements on Pay and Benefits for Government Employees, public sector employees have more than 25 days of annual leave and are entitled to paid annual leave from their first year of employment.

The number of days of annual leave is determined by the employee’s age:

  • 28 days up to and including the year they turn 29.
  • 31 days from the year they turn 30.
  • 35 days from the year they turn 40.

The accrual of the number of paid days of annual leave is related to how long the employee has worked during the accrual year. The accrual year is the year in which an employee has earned their leave. The holiday year is the year in which an employee is entitled to make use of accrued annual leave. At the University, the calendar year corresponds to both the accrual year and the holiday year.

A new employee is entitled to paid leave in their first year of employment, but the number of paid days of annual leave decreases the later in the year the employment starts. An employee who has not earned full annual leave is entitled to additional (unpaid) leave of a sufficient number of days to bring the total leave for the year to five weeks. If employment commences on or after 1 September, the employee is entitled to five days of leave. Leave can therefore be paid or unpaid depending on how many days of leave have been earned during the year.

Keep in mind that some absences reduce the number of days of annual leave accrued. Turn to your HR officer for help in this matter. 

Read the information about annual leave for employees (Staff Pages)

Scheduling annual leave

As a manager, you are responsible not only for scheduling annual leave for your staff, but also for ensuring the leave is taken. The purpose of annual leave is for employees to have access to rest and recreation. Sick days should not be exchanged for annual leave days as this would defy the purpose of annual leave. Annual leave days should be scheduled during the year they are accrued, unless there are specific reasons for the employee to save them. Only employees entitled to more than 20 paid days of annual leave in a calendar year may save one or more of those remaining days for another year. At least 20 days must be scheduled the same year that they are accrued.

The manager is responsible for deciding how annual leave is scheduled, taking the employee’s preferences as the starting point. This should be done in good time, before the main period of leave starts.

Annual cycles for scheduling annual leave

The HR Division has drawn up a university-wide guide in the form of yearly cycles for the scheduling of annual leave.

It is important for each workplace to have routines in place for annual leave.

Scheduling annual leave for teaching staff

Annual leave for teaching staff is normally scheduled during student holidays or other non-teaching periods. You can find the LU definition of teaching staff in the Lund University Appointment Rules (which can be downloaded on the right).

At Lund University, annual leave for teaching staff is regulated in the Local Working Hours Agreement for Teaching Staff. You can read more on how to do this in Section 10 of the Advice and Instructions Concerning the Local Working Hours Agreement for Teaching Staff (which can be downloaded in Swedish on the right). 

The general rule in the agreement is that all annual leave shall be automatically arranged for the weeks following the first Monday after Midsummer, as long as there is no written arrangement between the head of department and the individual employee. 

Annual leave according to the general principle in the Local Working Hours Agreement for Teaching Staff

All of your annual leave is scheduled automatically from the Monday after Midsummer. Teaching staff take their entire annual leave in one go and therefore need not submit a request. 

Annual leave is registered in Primula by Statens Servicecenter, SSC (the National Government Service Centre). 

Annual leave in agreement with head of department/equivalent

The Local Working Hours Agreement for Teaching Staff states that the employer and individual member of teaching staff may make an agreement about scheduling the whole or parts of annual leave for a different time, or saving days for another year.

If a member of teaching staff wishes to schedule their annual leave for a different time, they must, according to the agreement, inform the head of department/equivalent at the latest 10 days before the desired dates, and by 30 April. Planning for annual leave takes place after this, and a written agreement is drawn up when the application for annual leave is approved. The member of teaching stuff must register their application via Primula. The application should cover all planned annual leave for the year and must be approved in Primula by 31 May. 

Apply for annual leave in Primula

This option can be used if a member of teaching staff needs to interrupt their annual leave to attend a conference, do fieldwork or similar for a short period. 

If a member of teaching staff wishes to save some days of their annual leave the same procedure applies, that is, they must inform the head of department/equivalent at the latest 10 days before the desired dates, and by 30 April. Planning for annual leave takes place after this, and a written agreement is drawn up when the application for annual leave is approved. The member of teaching stuff must register their application via Primula. The application applies to the days the member of teaching staff wishes to take out in the current year and must always be approved in Primula by 31 May. 

In order to be able to save days of annual leave, the following criteria must be met:

  • There is an approved application for annual leave of at least 20 days in Primula by 31 May. Only days in addition to this may be saved. 
  • The total days saved after that year’s application for annual leave must not exceed 30 days. A maximum of 30 days may be saved in total.
  • The annual working hours in the current year’s duties plan is increased by the time corresponding to the days saved. For each day of leave not taken, annual working time increases by eight hours and decreases correspondingly in the year in which the saved leave is taken.

There is a university-wide template available for documenting how the criteria for saving leave have been met and how many days are being saved for a later year:

Template for documentation of saved annual leave (PDF, 206 kB, new tab)

Agreement on saving annual leave for subsequent years – teaching staff (PDF, new tab). This form will be updated soon.

Special regulation concerning agreements about annual leave before Midsummer 

If a member of teaching staff has made an agreement with the head of department/equivalent, has applied for leave as described above and the application only concerns days taken before Midsummer, the remaining annual leave shall be allocated as standard in accordance with the general rule in the Working Hours Agreement, i.e., the rest of the annual leave shall be taken together, starting on the Monday following the Midsummer weekend. Therefore, the member of teaching staff does not need to apply for the remaining days of annual leave.

Annual leave is registered in Primula by SSC. 

Please note the exception if there is an agreement between the member of teaching staff and the head of department/equivalent that the main holiday of the year (at least 20 days) is to be taken before Midsummer and the remaining days should be saved for a subsequent year. In these cases, the employer must inform SSC about this, otherwise the rest of the annual leave will be scheduled according to the general rule in the Working Hours Agreement. Even when leave to be taken after the normal period for teaching staff annual leave has been approved in Primula and the remaining days are to be saved for a later year, the SSC must be informed so that the remaining leave is not scheduled according to the general rule in the Working Hours Agreement. The dates for the normal period for teaching staff annual leave starts on the Monday after Midsummer and covers the subsequent 7 weeks, and therefore vary from year to year.

The SSC should be informed, preferably by the authorised representative of the employer, by submitting a copy of the documentation that leave is to be saved (signed by the member of teaching staff and the head of department/equivalent) via the SSC customer portal.

Read more about processing annual leave for teaching staff in Primula 

Doctoral students

As a doctoral student, you apply for annual leave using SSC Primula in accordance with the procedures in place at your workplace. Both from a work environment perspective and from an operational perspective, it is important that doctoral students take all of their annual leave, preferably after Midsummer, when annual leave is ordinarily scheduled for teaching staff.

Technical and administrative staff

There are no automatic procedures for T/A staff’s annual leave. Instead, the employer is to allocate annual leave following consultation with employees, and this generally occurs after an annual leave request is submitted via Primula.

A block of four weeks of annual leave must be scheduled during June, July and August, unless otherwise agreed or due to special circumstances.

Normally, leave is scheduled at least two months in advance.

Remember to take any parental leave into consideration when planning annual leave.

Annual leave for employees with fixed part-time working hours

Fixed part-time working hours refer to employees who, on average, work fewer than five days per week, i.e. they have a full day off during the week.

To ensure that staff who only work certain days of the week do not receive too much annual leave, their leave days need to be recalculated. This is done automatically in SSC Primula in conjunction with an application for annual leave. The calculation is based on the timetable registered in SSC Primula, therefore it is essential that staff who have fixed part-time working hours check that the timetable in SSC Primula is up-to-date and accurate. Any changes should be reported by the employee via the SSC customer portal.

Disagreement about the scheduling of annual leave

Always contact the HR officer at your faculty/equivalent in the event of any disagreement regarding how annual leave has been scheduled.

Saved days of annual leave

Only employees entitled to more than 20 paid days of annual leave in a calendar year can save one or more of those remaining days for a subsequent year. An employee may only save a maximum of 30 days of annual leave. If, on 1 January 2018, an employee had more than 30 saved days, the days in excess of 30 can be taken out over a five-year period until 31 December 2022. Before any saved days can be taken out, the current year’s holiday days must be used.

Those who wish to take out saved days must inform their employer when they submit their application for annual leave, or at least two months in advance.

If an employee has not been able to take out part of their annual leave during a year due to illness or other valid reason, these days will be converted into saved leave. If the unused annual leave cannot be accommodated within the 30 days that can be saved, holiday pay will be paid out in lieu of these excess days. However, this does not entitle an employee to exchange annual leave for money.

Illness or need for other type of leave during annual leave

If an employee becomes ill during their annual leave or needs to take leave for another reason that accrues holiday pay in accordance with Sections 17 a and 17 b of the Annual Leave Act, they must contact their employer without delay (however, no later than when they return to work after their leave) and inform them that they wish to claim sick days or other leave in lieu of annual leave. This is regulated by Section 15 in the Annual Leave Act. Leave can only be exchanged for full days.

Page manager: webbansvarig [at] hr [dot] lu [dot] se | 13 Sep 2022