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Working hours for teaching staff

This page provides information about working hours for teaching staff. 

Content on this page:


Annual working hours

The annual working hours for teaching staff are regulated in the working hours agreement for teaching staff.

Teaching staff are to participate in planning their annual working hours. The work duties are to be documented in a duties plan.

Working hours agreement for teaching staff

Teaching staff refers to the following categories, as defined in Lund University’s Appointment Rules:

  • Professors and visiting professors.
  • Adjunct professors.
  • Senior lecturers.
  • Adjunct senior lecturers.
  • Associate senior lecturers.
  • Postdocs.
  • Lecturers.
  • Adjunct lecturers.

Annual working hours for teaching staff

Total annual working hours for teaching staff are:

  • 1 756 hours for employees with 28 days of annual leave
    (until the year you turn 29).
  • 1 732 hours for employees with 31 days of annual leave
    (from the year you turn 30)
  • 1 700 hours for employees with 35 days of annual leave
    (from the year you turn 40)

All your duties should be encompassed in your annual working hours. Time spent on duties as a head of department, director of studies and similar roles is regulated separately in the individual agreement for the role. The assignment and its scope in time are regulated in a written agreement.

In case of approved leave, illness, unused annual leave, etc., the total annual working hours are to be adjusted accordingly.

Example:

  • If you have 1,700 hours of annual working time and are sick for 5 days, 40 hours will be deducted from your annual working time in the current year (and your working time in that year will be 1,660 hours). However, if you want to save 5 days of holiday for year 1 and use them in year 2, 40 hours are added to year 1 and the 40 hours are deducted from your annual working time when you take them in year 2.
  • If you have 1,700 hours of annual working time and receive an assignment of 150 hours, your staffing plan should only include 1,550 hours.

The total annual working hours for teaching staff also apply to doctoral students, teaching assistants and clinical assistants.

Overtime and additional hours

Overtime and additional hours should not normally occur. When they do occur, they are to be ordered or approved retroactively by the head of department or equivalent.

Document performance of unplanned duties

If you need to perform duties that have not been included in your duties plan and which are not covered by your annual working hours, you are to keep a record of when you performed the duties and how long it took. As a first step, you and your manager are to try to redistribute your duties for the rest of the calendar year so that the unplanned duties are included in the framework of your annual working hours. 

If this is not possible, the situation will need to be dealt with by means of overtime or additional hours. You and your manager need to agree on how the hours are to be settled. This can be done by means of compensatory leave or payment of compensation for overtime or additional hours.

Year-end follow-up

It is important to do the follow-up at the end of the calendar year in which you performed the unplanned duties, as it is at that point that you will be able to see how your annual working hours have been affected.

It is also at the end of the year that you will plan for the upcoming year and when you may need to move some duties to the new or updated duties plan (depending on whether you use annual or multiannual plans).

Your duties plan for the upcoming calendar year needs to be adjusted if you take compensatory leave.

Register compensation for additional hours or overtime in the same year the work was performed

If you and your manager agree that compensation will be paid for additional hours or overtime, you must register the hours in Primula in the same calendar year in which the work was performed. It is not possible to register the hours the following year.

Time is to be registered for the dates and the hours that duties were performed. Since you will register the hours after the fact in Primula, you must have a written record of all the occasions, hours and dates to ensure the information is entered correctly.

Doctoral student, teaching assistant or clinical assistant

If you are a doctoral student, teaching assistant or clinical assistant, you cannot be ordered to work overtime.

Professors

According to Lund University's local professors' agreement, professors do not receive extra time or compensation for overtime work.

Evening and weekend teaching

For teaching after 18:00 and teaching on Saturdays and Sundays, salary supplements are paid in accordance with the applicable local agreement on fees for hourly-paid teaching and for evening and weekend teaching.

Attendance at the workplace

As a member of teaching staff, you are to be present at the workplace to the extent required by the organisation and duties. This might include teaching, as well as meetings with working groups, the division or similar.

When you are not at the workplace, you are to be available at your home address. If you are working from another location, you are to inform your head of department. This is important both for unforeseen needs within the organisation and so that insurance coverage applies if something happens to you during working hours.

Duties plans: Distribution of duties

You and your manager are to plan the distribution of your working hours for the upcoming calendar year. This planning is to be presented in a duties plan. The plan may cover up to three years and is to be revised ahead of each new year.

The aim of the duties plan is to achieve a balance between the various duties of a member of teaching staff and the total number of annual working hours over the calendar year. The distribution of your duties varies according to the nature of the duties and their level of difficulty, amongst other things.

The duties plan comprises primarily those elements that form the basis of annual working hours for teaching staff:

  • teaching
  • research
  • professional development
  • administration.

How much time is spent on the various elements depends on your position, the faculty’s and the department’s organisational targets as well as teaching and research assignments. Assignments such as director of studies or board member, for example, are not included in the hours distributed in the duties plan.

Professors, visiting professors, adjunct professors

Professors should normally spend the major part of their annual working hours, allocated in the duties plan,, on research, and on the teaching and supervision of research students. You should also participate in teaching of undergraduate and Master’s students.

Senior professors

The duties of a senior professor are regulated in the individual agreement for the role. You should normally spend the majority of your annual working hours on research.

You can also participate in teaching of undergraduate and Master’s students and in the teaching and supervision of research students.

Senior lecturers

Senior lecturers and adjunct senior lecturers should normally spend time on both teaching and research. The part of your working hours used for education should normally amount to a maximum of 70 per cent on average for the period of the duties plan.

Other duties should normally amount to at least 30 per cent of working hours, with at least 20 per cent being research and professional development.

Postdocs, associate senior lecturers, research fellows

Postdocs, associate senior lecturers and research fellows are to spend the major part of their annual working hours allocated in the duties plan on research.

You are to have the opportunity to undertake training in higher education teaching and learning and to participate in teaching of undergraduate and Master’s students in order to gain the experience necessary for future promotion to senior lecturer and professor.

Lecturers

Lecturers and adjunct lecturers should normally spend the major part of their annual working hours allocated in their duties plan on teaching. The part of annual teaching hours in the duties plan spent on teaching activities should normally amount to a maximum of 80 per cent on average for the period of the duties plan.

Other duties should normally amount to at least 20 per cent of working hours, with at least 10 per cent being professional development. Research studies may be included where relevant.

Contact

Contact your line manager or the HR function at your organisational unit if you have any questions concerning employment or your organisational unit’s procedures for HR matters.

Are you paid by the hour and employed on a short-term temporary basis?

To receive your salary you are to

  • register your working hours in Primula no later than the first calendar week of the month after you have completed your hours,  
  • register the correct hours on the days you actually worked, as agreed,
  • submit all the hours worked each month collectively once a month.

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