Vacation

As a governmental employee, you have more than the statutory 25 days. As an employee of Uppsala University, the number of vacation days per calendar year are as follows:

• 28 days of paid vacation up to and including the year of your 29th birthday
• 31 days of paid vacation from the year of your 30th birthday
• 35 days of paid vacation from the year of your 40th birthday

The qualifying year and the vacation year coincide and are the same as the calendar year. This means that you may take paid vacation even in your first year of employment.

At least 20 days of vacation should be taken every calendar year. If your total vacation entitlement is less than 20 days during your first year of employment, these days must be used before December 31, if your employment began on August 31, at the latest. See also the information below about saved vacation days.

If you begin your employment on September 1 or later, you are entitled to save the year’s qualifying vacation days to the following year.

For entitlement to fully paid vacation, you must be employed for the whole year. If you are employed for part of the calendar year, your vacation entitlement decreases according to your time of employment. The same applies if you leave your job at the university and, as a rule, if you take leave of absence or are absent without pay.

If you take up a new position within the university, your unused vacation days are transferred to your new job.

If you do not work a whole calendar year

1. Find out how many vacation days you are entitled to for full-time employment, based on your age group.
2. Multiply this annual vacation entitlement by your employment period (number of days of employment).
3. Divide the result by the number of days in the year in question (365, or 366 in a leap year) to obtain the number of vacation days to which you are entitled.
4. If the calculation has resulted in a number with decimals, round up the number of days to the nearest full number.

Example: If you have 35 days of annual vacation and your employment begins on October 1, you have 92 days of employment in that year:

35 x 92/365 = 8,822 = 9 days of paid vacation.

If your normal working hours are Mon-Fri, each working day during the vacation period is seen as a vacation day. If your working hours are normally concentrated to average less than five working days in a week, vacation days are calculated by a quotient. See Villkorsavtalen 5 Chap. 9-10§§.

The number of accrued vacation days with vacation pay for employees who work on a concentrated schedule are the same as for an employee working Monday-Friday, regardless of whether the employee works full-time or part-time. If an employee with a schedule concentrated to three working days per week would only have to use three vacation days for one week of vacation, their annual vacation days would suffice for more vacation time than for an employee with a work schedule Monday-Friday.

In order to ensure that employees with a concentrated working schedule do not get a longer vacation time than employees working five days a week, vacation days must be calculated as though the work schedule comprised Monday-Friday.

The vacation quotient is calculated by dividing 5 with the number of working days per week:

When you take a vacation day, you receive a vacation bonus corresponding to 0.49% of your current salary* for every paid vacation day in addition to your regular salary. The vacation bonus is based on the working extent at the time of your vacation. This bonus is paid with your salary in conjunction with the vacation. If you have standard vacation, the vacation bonus is disbursed in October of the vacation year concerned.

* ‘Current salary’ means fixed salary minus fixed salary deductions.

According to the Agreements on General Salary and Benefits for employees in the private and state sectors (Villkorsavtal) Chap 5, 14§, a guaranteed vacation bonus ensures that an employee is entitled to a minimum vacation pay for each day of vacation. The guaranteed vacation bonus only applies to the vacation days taken during the year, regardless of whether they are from the current year’s vacation quota or saved days. This is automatically adjusted in Primula.

If you are not entitled to fully paid annual vacation, you are, on the other hand, entitled to unpaid vacation so that your total vacation (i.e. including the paid vacation entitlement that you have earned) amounts to five weeks. If your employment begins on September 1 or later, and you do not earn one week of paid vacation days, you are entitled to one week of unpaid vacation. When you take unpaid vacation, a deduction is made for each vacation day.

If you are entitled to more than 20 paid vacation days for a particular calendar year, you may save one or more of the extra days for another year according to the collective agreements on general salary and benefits (villkorsavtalen; see below). Under the local collective agreement, an exception to this applies if you began your job on September 1 or later in the year. You may then save all vacation days for which you earn entitlement in the first year to a subsequent vacation year. The option to save vacation days from one year to the next also applies if you return to work on September 1 or later after taking leave that does not qualify for vacation entitlement from January to August.

Villkorsavtal-T: 5 Chap. 15§: “If, owing to the employee’s illness or other special reasons, part of the vacation has not been used over the year, the vacation days will be converted into saved vacation. Should the unused vacation exceed the 30 days that may be saved, vacation pay is paid out for the overshooting days.”

You cannot have more than 30 saved vacation days.

Employees that have more than 30 saved vacation days on 2018-12-31 will automatically receive any overshooting days paid out as part of the February wages, according to the Collective agreement [Villkorsavtalet].

Remember that the current year’s vacation days must always be spent before using the saved days.

Your entire year’s vacation days should be applied for, unless you notify your manager that you wish to save certain days or if special reasons exist (e.g. that you are on full-time sickness leave).

The employer (head of department/equivalent) is responsible for ensuring that vacation is taken – this cannot be handed to the employee. The employer cannot unilaterally decide that vacation must be taken during a specific period, but must also ensure that this has been done.

Vacation pay is disbursed if you end your employment at Uppsala University before you have taken all the paid vacation days to which you are entitled. Your department ensures that this is done by submitting the form “Reglering av semester” to the Payroll Unit so that the vacation pay can be disbursed the month following your finished employment.

Vacation pay is paid out at a rate that for each unused vacation day corresponds to 4.6 percent of the regular pay. In addition you receive a vacation bonus corresponding to 0.49% of your current salary for every paid vacation day. Some deductions may reduce the amount.

In certain conditions, unused vacation days may be paid out in money, e.g. when an employee has been ill long-term. This compensation is paid out in January, in the year following the vacation year in question.

According to the Swedish Annual leave Act, you have the right to interrupt your vacation if you become ill. This must be reported on the first day of illness. Your vacation days are then automatically changed to days of sickness absence.

Vacation during a long-term illness

During a long-term absence owing to illness, the first 180 days of the sick days (in addition to days worked before/after the sickness period) may be counted as basis for vacation pay during the year you fall ill. The subsequent year, 180 days are seen as basis for vacation days.

Long-term absence owing to a work injury is not included in the 180-day-limit. The sick days may be counted as basis for vacation pay in the year you fall ill and the subsequent calendar year.

During a full-time or part-time sick leave, vacation days may be used. Fully paid vacation is accrued from the employer during 180 sick days; vacation days are subsequently accrued according to the extent of which you work.

Vacation in conjunction with other leave

If you take vacation days in conjunction with other leave, such as parental leave, the vacation should be taken immediately before or after the leave.

It is possible to apply for a retraction of a vacation that has already been approved, by applying for a withdrawal in Primula.

Decisions on the granting of vacation is binding. This means that the employer cannot unilaterally change or withdraw such a decision, unless there is a good reason to do so. Similarly, you as an employee cannot unilaterally decide to change or withdraw your holiday. An agreement to change or withdraw holiday can always be made between the employer and the employee.

However, the right to exchange holiday for sick leave is governed by the Annual leave Act.