Working hours

Working hours are regulated differently depending on employment and agreement.

Working hours agreement for teachers

Doctoral students as well as employees who have a PhD and work in a research group with mainly research-related tasks and/or teaching are covered by the Working hours agreement for teachers, which is regulated in the Local Term Agreement, appendix 5. The agreement is to be found on the HR support page.

Employees covered by this agreement have unregulated working hours and are not entitled to reductions in working hours or in-between-days that are off from work (klämdagar). Instead, the employee has the opportunity to arrange one’s own working hours based on the organizational needs, in dialogue with immediate manager.

Overtime and teaching at inconvenient working hours should normally not occur.

Technical and administrative (T/A) staff

Working hours for T/A personnel are regulated through Local Term Agreement (below only in Swedish).

An ordinary work week is 40 hours for full-time employees. Part-time employees calculate their weekly working time as a percentage of the weekly working time of full-time employees.

Under the Working Hours Act (Arbetstidslagen), work may be performed for a maximum of five consecutive hours, after which a break of at least 30 minutes must be taken.

Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays that fall on a weekday, Midsummer's Eve, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are work-free days. Bridge days (a work day between two work-free days) are also work-free.

Annual working time is calculated 52 x average number of working days/week, for an employee working Mondag-Friday = 260 days.

Distance work

Employees who have an agreement on distance work can work part-time at home or at another location agreed with their manager. At least half of the work must be performed on KI:s premises unless the manager and employee have temporarily agreed otherwise.

Distance work must be carried out within the borders of Sweden.

Reduction in working hours

This reduction only applies to T/A personnel.

On the following days the normal working hours are reduced by the number of hours stated below:

Epiphany – 4 hours
Maundy Thursday – 2 hours
30 April which falls on Monday–Thursday – 2 hours
30 April which falls on a Friday – 4 hours
The day before All Saints Day – 8 hours
23 December which falls on a Friday – 4 hours

Reduced working hours in 2024

January 5 - four hours
March 28 - two hours
April 30 - two hours
November 1 - eight hours

In the case of part-time work, the reduction in working hours is in proportion to the extent of work. Example: An employee who works 75% of normal hours is allowed a reduction of 3 hours instead of the above reduction of 4 hours. Instead of 2 hours, the same employee is allowed a reduction of 1½ hours. Annual working hours 2020 and annual working hours 2021.

In-between-days 2024

A working day which falls between two non-working days is taken as an extra day off work. Employees who work on a schedule, see local agreements. An employee who is ordered to work on an in-between-day (klämdag) is released from work at a later date for the same length of time.

May 10th
June 7th
December 23rd
December 27th
December 30th

The National Day of Sweden

If National Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, no compensatory leave is granted for this day. If the National Day falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, you will be compensated with a bridge day instead.

Flexitime

Flexible work hours are between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., with a core period between 9 a.m. and 3.30 p.m.
The lunch break is between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. A lunch break must be at least 30 minutes.
The maximum flexitime debit is ten hours and flexitime credit cannot be greater than 20 hours.

Flexible working hours are regulated by the Local Term Agreement, appendix 2.

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Confidence working hours (förtroendearbetstid)

An employer and an employee have the opportunity to agree on so-called confidence working hours. This requires an “Individual agreement on confidence working hours” according to Villkorsavtalet chapter 2, §7.

For employees with confidence working hours, the other provisions of Villkorsavtalet, Chapter 4, do not apply. However, the EU directive on working hours always applies (11 hours daily and 36 hours weekly).

Individual agreements on confidence working hours are primarily intended to be applied to administrative staff.

The agreement must be in writing.
Termination provisions must be included (1 month recommended).
Before an agreement is reached, the HR function at the department and the relevant local trade union must be informed (local trade union if the employee is a member).

See more detailed information here: Confidence Working Time.

Additional hours and overtime

The hours between a halftime and fulltime job are referred to as additional hours (mertid).

The employer can request employees to work beyond KI:s regular daily working hours. Compensation is given in the form of money or time off.

Simple overtime: overtime work other than qualified overtime.

Compensation per hour is full-time salary divided by 94. Compensation in time off is overtime x one and a half.

Qualified overtime:

from 19:00 on Friday until 07:00 on Monday
from 19:00 on the day before Epiphany, International Workers' Day, Ascension Day, National Day, Midsummer's Eve, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, until 07:00 on the following working day
from 19:00 on Maundy Thursday until 07:00 on the day after Easter Monday
the day before All Saint's Day
otherwise between 22:00 and 06:00

Compensation per hour is the full-time salary divided by 72. Compensation in leave is overtime x two. Overtime may not exceed 50 hours/month and a total of 150 hours per calendar year. For part-time employees, overtime combined with additional hours may not exceed 150 hours per calendar year. Overtime supplements are not paid for less than 15 minutes.

Overtime must be ordered in advance. It can be simple or qualified. No payment is made if the work is less than 15 minutes.

Additional hours and overtime are regulated in the Local Term Agreement (below, only in Swedish).

Supplement for inconvenient working hours

A supplement (OB-tillägg) is paid when regular working hours are during inconvenient/unsocial times, such as nights and weekends. Hours that are considered inconvenient are regulated through the Local Term Agreement, Appendix 4.

Inconvenient hours are compensated as simple, qualified or incremental OB.

The total amount of OB supplements are summed up each calendar month and rounded off to the nearest half hour.

Standby time

When you are on standby time you are obliged to be at your employer’s disposal during work-free hours. When on standby time you must be available by phone and if called to duty able to go directly to your workplace.

Daily and weekly rest time is regulated by the Swedish Working Hours Act.

Veterinarians have their own local collective agreement that regulates standby time.

Standby time duty is regulated through the (in Swedish only) Local Term Agreement, Appendix 7.