Parental leave

General

The Parental Leave Act and the Service Leave Regulation entitle the employee to the following:

• Leave until the child is 18 months old
• Full-time leave for children older than 18 months if parental benefit is paid full-time
• Part-time leave until the child is 12 years old

Parental leave is regulated by general agreements and laws. Karolinska Institutet also has a local agreement on parental leave pay.

Notification of parental leave should, if possible, be made two months before the expected birth and cover the entire period of leave, i.e. holidays should also be planned. Planning should be done in consultation with the institution. At least 20 days of annual leave must be taken.

Parental leave may be divided into a maximum of three periods/calendar year. If the extent of the leave changes, it counts as a new period. The purpose of the planning is to ensure that the employer's operations function properly. More periods can be approved by the employer if the business allows it.

If the staff member wishes to return to work earlier than planned, the institution must be notified at least one month in advance.

The employee must request parental leave from Försäkringskassan. KI will make salary deductions based on the extent of the parental leave.

• Register the parental leave at least two months in advance in the PA web.
• You are entitled to a maximum of three periods of leave per calendar year.
• Remember to take at least 20 vacation days per calendar year during your parental leave.

More information about parental allowance can be found at Försäkringskassan.

Parental leave with standard vacation

When taking parental leave for the majority of the year, the parental leave needs to be paused to take vacation. When applying for parental leave in the PA web, enter the vacation period in Message/Notes directly in the leave case. Then Payroll will allocate the vacation days during the specified period. This is to match your application for parental allowance with the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan). 

Parental leave pay from KI

• Max. 360 occasions
• Until the child is 36 months old
• Parental leave pay are based on payment of current calender day

An employee who is on leave for the birth of a child or the care of an adopted child is entitled to parental pay. Parental pay consists of 10% of the salary. If your salary exceeds the ceiling for parental benefits, you will receive additional compensation. 

For more detailed information read the local agreement on parental pay.

Parental pay is paid monthly and in relation to the extent of the leave. This means that if an employee is 25% off, 25% of the parental salary that the employee would have received if he were 100% off is paid. Parental pay is paid a maximum of 360 occasions and at most until the child is 36 months old. For adopted children this means 36 months from the time the child came into the adoptive parent's care. By occasions means that if an employee chooses to take part-time parental leave, there are seven occasions per week used.

Example:

An employee who is on parental leave every Friday is counted as a part-time employee with 80% work every day. Seven days (occasions) are consumed per week and are counted from the 360 ​​occasions you had from the beginning.

Sick during parental leave

For information about illness during parental leave, see Försäkringskassan's website. 

An employee who is on parental leave and becomes ill does not receive sick pay from KI, but it is instead paid by Försäkringskassan.

When an employee has been granted sick pay by Försäkringskassan, the written decision or payment notice from Försäkringskassan must be sent to payroll@uf.ki.se. The payroll unit then replaces the parental leave with sick leave so that the parental leave days during the sick period can be saved for a later occasion.

Pregnancy benefits

An employee who, due to their duties, cannot continue working at the end of a pregnancy has the right to redeployment with retained salary. The employee must notify the employer at least one month in advance that she wishes to exercise her right to redeployment. If the employer does not have the possibility of relocating the employee, the employee can apply for pregnancy benefits.

Send the decision on pregnancy benefits from Försäkringskassan to your local HR.

When your pregnancy benefits has been approved by Försäkringskassan, the leave is registered in the PA web.

More information is available on Försäkringskassan's website.

Care of a sick child (vab)

On Försäkringskassan's website you can read more information on temporary parental benefits.

• Report care of sick child to your workplace and to Försäkringskassan on the same day.
• This applies to sick children up to the age of 12.
• If your child is aged between 12 and 16, you must submit a statement of payment from Försäkringskassan.
• If you need to take care of a sick child for more than 7 calendar days, you must submit a statement of payment from Försäkringskassan.

Temporary parental benefits in conjunction with childbirth

The child’s father or other parent is separately eligible for a ten-day leave. The days can be used and taken out up to the 60th day after the child comes home from the hospital. The compensation is paid out by Försäkringskassan.