Annual working hours for researchers

Contents of the page:

• Annual working hours
  • Total annual working hours
• Attendance at the workplace
• Special provisions in the event of teaching
• Distribution of work tasks
• Work beyond annual working hours/established staffing plan
• Scheduling of holidays
• Annual working hours during sick leave and leave of absence
• Annual working hours registered with the Swedish Social Insurance Agency in connection with sick leave and/or parental leave

Annual working hours

As a researcher/assistant researcher, you have annual working hours, according to the Working Hours Agreement for Researchers and Assistant Researchers.

Annual working hours mean that the actual working hours per week may vary throughout the year, even though the aim is to have as even a distribution as possible. There are no set working hours that you must work per day, per week or per month, nor are there any restrictions on when the work must be performed. This differs from flexitime, which is normally used by those who are not teachers or researchers/assistant researchers at universities.

What is regulated is that working hours are limited to a total number of working hours per calendar year.

Total annual working hours for researchers/assistant researchers

Your total annual working hours as a researcher, for full-time and year-round employment, are:

• 1,756 hours for employees with 28 days of holiday (up to and including the year you turn 29)
• 1,732 hours for employees with 31 days of holiday (from the year you turn 30)
• 1,700 hours for employees with 35 days of holiday (from the year you turn 40)

In the event of leave of absence, illness, unused holiday entitlement and similar, the total annual working time must be adjusted.

Example:

• If you have 1,700 hours of annual working time and are ill for 5 days, 40 hours must be deducted from your annual working time for the current year (and your working time for 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 will be added to year 1 and the 40 hours will be deducted from your annual working hours when you take them in year 2.

Attendance at the workplace

As a researcher/assistant researcher, you must be present at the workplace to the extent required by the activities and tasks. Other employees' access to contact with the researcher must be taken into account. Attendance is important for the development of the business and a good working environment.

If work is carried out outside the workplace and your regular home address, you and your manager must discuss in advance which workplaces are relevant and suitable for carrying out the work.

Special provisions for teaching

In the event that teaching is planned, working hours for preparation and follow-up work shall be applied in the same way as for teachers at Lund University.

Evening and weekend teaching

If applicable, see teachers' working time agreements.

Distribution of work tasks

The planning of annual working hours and the distribution of work tasks shall be done in consultation between the researcher concerned and their immediate manager, for example during the annual development review or other similar meetings. This planning shall be documented in the manner deemed appropriate by the manager and the researcher.

The aim is to strive for a balance between both work tasks and workload throughout the year.

Work beyond the annual working hours

Overtime or extra hours should not normally occur for researchers. In order for you to be able to work overtime or extra hours, your manager must have ordered a specific work assignment in advance or approved it retrospectively. Always talk to your manager so that there are no misunderstandings about working hours.

Decisions on how to compensate for extra time and overtime are made at the end of the calendar year.

If, after reconciliation and redistribution, there is extra time or overtime, this should be settled in connection with the annual accounts. If you are going to take compensatory leave, the annual working hours for the coming calendar year need to be adjusted to take this into account.

If you and your manager agree that extra time or overtime compensation should be paid, you must register the time in Primula in the same calendar year as the work was performed. The recommendation is that researchers and managers should agree on when the work tasks they ordered or subsequently approved actually resulted in extra time/overtime, and that the researcher reports based on this documentation.

No compensation for extra time or overtime is paid for

• research,
• researcher training,
• skills development and your own artistic development work that you control yourself.

Scheduling of holidays

In addition to the provisions of the Annual Leave Act, the following applies:

Annual leave is scheduled consecutively in the summer, beginning on the Monday after Midsummer, unless otherwise agreed in writing between the manager and the individual researcher well in advance of the start of the holiday.

Read more about the scheduling of holidays for teachers and researchers:

Holidays for teachers, researchers and assistant researchers

Annual working hours in the event of sick leave and leave of absence

In the event of sick leave and leave of absence, the annual working hours are reduced in relation to the extent of the sick leave and leave of absence. One day of absence corresponds to eight hours for full-time employment.