Other types of leave

You are permitted leave without salary deduction for up to 10 days per calendar year:

• during serious illness (life-threatening or so acute that the employee is required to intervene) – 1 day
• death – 1 day
• funeral – 1 day
• estate inventory proceedings or distribution of an estate – 1 day

Applies to your family or close relatives.

Family or close relatives mean:

• spouse
• registered partner
• common law spouse (‘sambo’)
• children
• grandchildren
• parents (including step and foster parents)
• grandparents
• siblings
• parents-in-law (spouse’s, registered partner’s or common law spouse’s parents)
• uncle
• aunt
• nephew/niece
• son-in-law
• daughter-in-law
• brother-in-law
• sister-in-law

Also: if you are a beneficiary of an estate or have the right to represent such a beneficiary in matters of estate inventory proceedings or distribution of an estate.

Use of time: consideration must be given to how much time the matter takes up as well as any trips that need to be taken during working hours. Practically, one day is given to the matter and one day for any travel time over longer distances.

There are of course other occasions where you might want to take leave for other ‘family matters’, but then you must apply for other types of leave, such as holiday or leave with salary deduction (a so called ‘private matter’).

Examples of ’family matters’ where leave may be granted but with salary deduction (or holiday/compensatory leave):

• planning and discussion of a funeral (e.g. visiting a funeralparlour or meeting with a minister of religion)
• grieving for a death
• the funeral of a close friend, even if the relationship was very special
• cleaning a residence or moving after a death
• helping a close relative move
• going with a relative to the doctor
• visiting a close relative to help adjust their home, medical teams, etc.
• celebrating a birthday
• private matters

You do not have the right to take leave for other private matters than those listed above. Each application will be reviewed. During partial leave of absence, the employer will be considerate of the employee’s family’s social issues. Leave for private matters may be granted if there are specific reasons and if it does not inconvenience the operation. SLU’s policy is to be restrictive in this matter.

If the employer has granted the employee leave for their own move, the employee has the right to receive wages without deduction for one workday according to Villkorsavtal/ Villkorsavtal-T. Leave during part of a day is seen as a full day. The move must encompass a change of registration address.

You are permitted to take leave with full salary deduction on days when you receive benefit for care of closely related persons because you are taking care of a close relative at home or in another residence. Benefit for care of closely related persons is granted by Försäkringskassan.

The main rule is that you are granted leave with full salary deduction for service in the Swedish Total Defence. In certain cases, salary may be kept, e.g. during refresher training (or equivalent) where supplementary salary is paid, making the total reimbursement, including daily salary, correspond to 90% of the set salary. If you take leave to serve as a reservist, 25% of your salary is paid unless another agreement is made.

You are deducted your full salary during the time it takes to fulfil the function.

Leave for trade union representative assignment is regulated in both the law (Law (1974:358) regarding a union representative’s position in the workplace, FML) and in a central agreement between the labour market parties (SAV-cirkulär 1984:A39).

The person locally appointed as a union representative has the right to leave of absence for the time necessary to complete the union assignment. The representative will often have a certain deduction of work hours for the union assignments (decided in annual agreements between the HR Division and the local trade unions) and the union work should generally be completed within this time. No wage deductions are made for the union-allocated time and the different departments/workplace will be reimbursed for the union time from the university’s joint budget.

Steps

An application for leave of absence should always be submitted for trade union assignments so that the employer may assess whether the leave should be approved with retained pay. The employee should support the need for leave by e.g. showing the summons to the meeting.
If the union assignment concerns activities in the workplace (= the university), the union representative can be approved leave with pay. Examples of activities are information events, negotiations, participation in committees or training necessary for the assignment. It is also possible to get leave without pay for e.g. internal union issues such as union meetings, training that does not directly concern the union representative assignment as well as participation in a union activity that does not relate to the university.

In addition to what is stated in the law and in the agreement regarding trade union representatives, according to I Villkorsavtal/ Villkorsavtal-T (9 Ch, 2 §) a union representative has the right to pay during leave for union representative assignments for a maximum of ten days in a calendar year. This may include assignments such as chair person or secretary in a central or regional union organisation, representative during a conference, accountant etc. In such cases, the department/equivalent is compensated through the university joint budget. In other cases, the department/equivalent covers the cost.

Other time-limited government employment

If you have an indefinite-term employment, you are permitted to take leave for another time-limited government employment. The employment must not exceed two years.

Other employments

You may also be granted leave for other employments than those relating to the government if there are specific reasons and if it does not inconvenience the university. SLU’s policy is to grant leave for a maximum of six months unless there are specific circumstances dictating otherwise. You do not have a definite right to this type of leave. According to the Villkorsavtalet-T agreements (General agreement on pay and benefits for government employees), this type of leave may last for a maximum of six months, unless there are grounds for something else.

Business operations

According to the Right to Leave to Conduct a Business Operation Act (SFS 1997:1293), an employee has the right to take a leave of absence from their employment for a maximum of six months to run their own business (self-employment). The operation may not compete with the employer’s operation and may not substantially inconvenience the employer’s operation. A prerequisite is that you have been employed for the past six months or a total of at least twelve months for the past two years. The decision is made by the head of the department (or equivalent).

Leave is not generally granted for an employee who has been employed at the university a shorter time (approximately a year). Also, leave is usually not permitted if you hold a temporary post.

When working part-time for two different employers, it is important to review your taxation to ensure that not too little tax is deducted overall for the year.

For example, if you have two part-time jobs at 50% with different employers, one of the employments should be taxed at 30%.

Under the Terms and Conditions Agreement, if an employee is granted leave for a period of at least four weeks in such a way that he or she will work wholly or partially on certain days and be completely off on other days (compressed part-time work), this must be recorded in Primula as part-time leave.

The extent of the leave is calculated as follows: Determine what proportion the total absence time constitutes of the employee’s total regular working time during the period. The partial salary deduction must constitute the same proportion of the regular salary.

Example: An employee with office working hours (Monday–Friday) is granted leave on Mondays and Tuesdays for two months. The average absence per working week constitutes 2/5, i.e., 40 percent, of the regular working time. The employee shall therefore, for payroll purposes, be treated as if he or she were on leave with a 40 percent salary deduction on all days during the leave period.

Employees working on Office hours need to register a part-time schedule in Primula to ensure that other types of leave are deducted correctly.

An application for leave must be made based on the percentage of your position from which you wish to be on leave. The percentage is calculated differently depending on whether your underlying position is full-time or part-time.

Leave from a full-time position

When taking leave from a full-time position, the extent of the leave you are applying for is always stated in relation to the full-time position.

Example:
You have an underlying full-time position from which you are on leave for 25%. During a period, you are to work 50%. In this case, the extent of the additional leave should be 25%.

Leave from a part-time position

When it comes to leave from a part-time position, it is important that the correct extent is entered in the leave case in Primula. To calculate the percentage, it is easiest to start from the number of hours.

Example:
You have an employment of 75%, i.e., 30 hours per week, and during the leave you will work 50% of a full-time position = 20 hours per week. This means that the leave corresponds to 10 hours. You should then apply for leave with an extent of 33.33%, i.e., 10/30 = 33.33%.

Withdrawal of leave is done by you as an employee directly in Primula. In the menu option “Reclaim leave/holiday” there is a form where the type of leave must be selected from a drop-down list. Enter the date interval and the extent to which the leave is to be reclaimed. You cannot reclaim sick leave and replace it with another type of absence.

This applies to all forms of approved leave, whether it concerns annual leave, VAB (care of a sick child), unpaid leave, etc.

The request to revoke the leave must be approved by your immediate manager or by the head of department/deputy head of department.