Secondary employment

Content on this page:

• Your responsibility as an employee
• Secondary employment for teaching staff
• Reporting secondary employment 
• Sanctions

The main rule is that employees dispose of their leisure time as they wish and that secondary employment is permitted. However, pursuant to legislation and collective agreements, some types of secondary employment are prohibited on the grounds that they damage credibility, interfere with work duties or represent competition.

For information on the rules that apply to secondary employment read more in the University’s Memorandum on secondary employment:

Link to memorandum on secondary employment at Lund University (PDF 58 kB, new tab) 

The University has also decided on special regulations on secondary employment:

Link to regulations on secondary employment (PDF 82 kB, new tab)

Answers to frequently asked questions about secondary emloyment are listed on this page:

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about secondary employment

Your responsibility as an employee

As an employee, you are responsible for ensuring that the secondary employment does not damage credibility. Secondary employment and work at the University are always to be clearly separated and all secondary employment is to be entirely conducted outside the framework of employment at the University, in terms of both content and time. 

Secondary employment for teaching staff

Teaching staff at higher education institutions have a more extensive right to engage in secondary employment regarding research and development (R&D) within the subject area of their main employment. This is to facilitate cooperation between the University and wider society. This rule applies only to R&D work and not to teaching assignments or other commitments. 

This right entails a greater obligation for teaching staff to report secondary employment. The following categories are considered teaching staff, as defined in the Lund University Appointment Rules. 

Lund University Appointment Rules (PDF, new tab)

• professor and visiting professor
• adjunct professor
• post-retirement professor 
• senior lecturer
• adjunct senior lecturer
• associate senior lecturer
• postdoc
• lecturer
• adjunct lecturer

If you are employed as a researcher or a doctoral student, you are not covered by the rules concerning secondary employment for teaching staff.

Reporting secondary employment 

All teaching staff, regardless of the scope of their employment, are to submit a report annually on secondary employment. Teaching staff who have no secondary employment are also to submit a report. 
When you report secondary employment, you are to do so in such a way as to allow your manager to determine whether or not it is permitted.

A new report is to be submitted as soon as you intend to undertake/are undertaking new secondary employment or when there are changes in the scope or nature of previously reported and approved secondary employment.

A small number of managers are covered by the local agreement on central management positions. If you are one of them, you have a greater obligation to report secondary employment and must submit an annual report regardless of whether or not you are engaged in secondary employment.

Non-academic staff only have an obligation to report secondary employment when this is requested by their manager.

Reports on secondary employment are made in Primula:

• Submitting a report on secondary employment in Primula
• Guide – Reporting secondary employment (PDF 237 kB, new tab)

Please note that in Primula, the synonym ”sideline” is used for secondary employment.

Sanctions

The University can take a special decision ordering an employee to cease their secondary employment or prohibiting them from undertaking it.

In the case of a serious offence, or if an employee continues to engage in secondary employment despite a request or decision ordering him or her to desist, he or she may incur disciplinary liability for misconduct or the university employment may be terminated.