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Manage annual leave

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Here you will find information for managers on scheduling annual leave and carrying over unused leave.

Contents:

General information about annual leave

The Annual Leave Act is primarily intended to give all employees the opportunity to take paid leave for rest and recreation. The Act provides for three benefits: annual leave, annual leave pay and annual leave compensation.

All employees in Sweden are entitled to 25 days’ of annual leave, i.e. five weeks’ annual leave. Through the Terms and Conditions Agreements, government employees are entitled to more than 25 days’ annual leave and to paid annual leave from their very first year of employment.

It is age that determines how many days of annual leave holiday an employee is entitled to:

  • 28 days up to and including the year in which they turn 29.
  • 31 days from the year in which they turn 30.
  • 35 days from the year in which they turn 40.

The accrual of paid annual leave days is linked to the employee’s length of service during the accrual year. The accrual year is the year in which an employee has earned their annual leave entitlement. The holiday year is the year in which an employee is entitled to take their accrued annual leave. Within the university, the calendar year is both the accrual year and the holiday year.

New employees’ entitlement to annual leave and time off

A new employee is entitled to paid annual leave from their first year of employment, but the number of paid annual leave days decreases the later in the year employment begins. An employee who has not accrued a full year’s annual leave is entitled to additional (unpaid) leave for as many days as are needed to bring the total annual leave for the year up to five weeks.

If employment begins on 1 September or later, the employee is entitled to five days’ leave. This leave may therefore be paid or unpaid, depending on how many holiday days are accrued during the year.

Bear in mind that certain absences reduce the number of holiday days. Seek assistance from your nearest HR department on this matter.

Scheduling of annual leave

As a manager, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the employee’s annual leave is scheduled and taken. The purpose of annual leave is to give an employee the opportunity for rest and recreation. Therefore, for example, sick days should not be exchanged for annual leave days.

The entire annual leave entitlement must be taken during the year unless there are special reasons or the employee wishes to carry over leave. An employee who is entitled to more than 20 days’ paid annual leave in a calendar year may carry over one or more of the excess days to a subsequent calendar year. At least 20 days must therefore be taken.

As the manager, it is you who decides when the annual leave is to be taken, based on your employees’ preferences.

Contents:

About annual leave for lecturers, post-retirement professors, researchers and assistant researchers

Holidays for lecturers, post-retirement professors, researchers and assistant researchers are normally scheduled during students’ holidays or other periods when there is no teaching. The definition of a lecturer can be found in Lund University’s Terms of Employment (available to download in the right-hand column).

At Lund University, the scheduling of annual leave for these positions is governed by the local agreement on working hours for teachers, the local agreement on working hours for senior professors and the local collective agreement on working hours for researchers and assistant researchers. 

  • Please note that researchers and assistant researchers at Max IV are not covered by this agreement. 
  • Please also refer to Section 10 of the guidelines and instructions for the working hours agreement for teachers (available for download in the right-hand column).

The main rule in the agreements is that the entire annual holiday is, as a standard, scheduled as a continuous period starting on the Monday following the Midsummer weekend, unless otherwise agreed in writing between the Head of Department and the employee.

You do not need to apply for standard annual leave; this is registered in Primula by the Government Service Centre (SSC).

Annual leave by agreement with the head of department/equivalent

The working time agreements allow the employer and the employee to agree to schedule all or part of the annual leave at a time other than the standard period under the main rule, and to carry over annual leave entitlement to a later year.

If an employee wishes to take annual leave at a different time, they must, in accordance with the agreements, notify the Head of Department or equivalent of their request no later than ten working days before the desired annual leave period, but no later than 30 April. Planning for the entire year’s annual leave is carried out at this time, and a written agreement is then made through an approved annual leave application. The annual leave application is submitted by the employee via Primula. The application covers all annual leave for the year and must be approved in Primula by 31 May.

Annual leave applications are made in Primula.

This option is particularly useful if the employee needs to take a break from their annual leave to, for example, attend a conference, carry out fieldwork or similar activities for a short period.

Carrying over annual leave

If lecturers, post-retirement professors, researchers or assistant researchers wish to save annual leave, the same procedure applies as above, i.e. the employee must notify the head of department or equivalent of their wish to save annual leave no later than ten working days before the desired holiday period, but no later than 30 April.

Planning for the entire year’s annual leave is carried out at this stage, and a written agreement is then drawn up via an approved annual leave application.

The annual leave application is submitted by the employee via Primula. The application covers the days the employee wishes to take during the current year and must be approved in Primula no later than 31 May.

In order to carry forward annual leave, the following criteria must be met:

  • There is an approved annual leave application for at least 20 days in Primula by 31 May. Only days in excess of these may be carried forward.
  • The total number of days carried forward following the annual leave application for the year does not exceed 30 days. A maximum of 30 days may be carried forward in total.
  • The annual working hours in the current year’s staff plan are increased by a number of hours corresponding to the saved days. For each annual leave day not taken, the annual working hours increase by eight hours, and the annual working hours are reduced accordingly in the year the saved annual leave is taken.

There is a university-wide form template that must be used to document that the criteria for carrying over annual leave have been met and how many days are being carried over to a later year.

Download the form template from the Forms and Templates page.

Special provisions regarding agreements on annual leave taken before Midsummer

If a lecturer, post-retirement professor, researcher or assistant researcher has made an agreement with the head of department or equivalent, and the application relates solely to annual leave taken before Midsummer, the remaining annual leave shall be allocated on a standard basis in accordance with the main rule in the working hours agreement; that is, the remainder of the year’s annual leave shall be taken consecutively, starting on the Monday following the Midsummer weekend. The employee therefore does not need to apply for annual leave for the remaining days.

Annual leave entitlement is recorded in Primula by SSC.

Agreement to carry over annual leave entitlement

Please note the exception where there is an agreement between a lecturer, post-retirement professor, researcher or assistant researcher and the head of department/equivalent that the main annual leave (at least 20 days) is to be taken before Midsummer and the remaining days are to be saved for a later year. In such cases, the employer must inform SSC of this.

SSC must also be informed when annual leave has been granted for taking after the standard period for standard holiday entitlement and the remaining days are to be saved for a later year.

If SSC is not notified as per the above examples, the remaining days will be allocated in accordance with the general rule in the working time agreements.

SSC is informed by an authorised representative of the employer submitting a copy of the form for documentation that leave is to be carried over (signed by the teacher, post-retirement professor, researcher or assistant researcher and the head of department or equivalent) via SSC’s customer portal.

PhD students apply for annual leave via SSC Primula in accordance with the procedures applicable at their workplace and are subject to the same annual leave regulations as other staff members. See the section T/A staff below.

PhD students are encouraged to take their annual leave after Midsummer, as this is when teaching staff’s annual leave is normally scheduled.

Employees with concentrated working hours

For T/A staff, there is no automatic procedure regarding the scheduling of annual leave. Instead, the employer must schedule annual leave following consultation with the employee.

Each department must have a procedure in place specifying the deadline for submitting requests regarding the scheduling of the main annual leave (in the summer), so that employees can be notified of their leave dates no later than two months before the start of the leave (applies to the main holiday period).

Annual leave must be scheduled as a continuous period of at least four weeks during June, July and August, unless otherwise agreed or where there are special reasons.

Please also bear in mind any parental leave when planning holidays.

Employees with concentrated working hours

Concentrated working hours means that an employee works fewer than five days on average per week, i.e. has at least one full day off during the week.

To ensure that those who only work certain days of the week do not receive longer annual leave, the annual leave days must be recalculated. This is done automatically in SSC Primula when applying for holiday.

The calculation is based on the schedule registered in SSC Primula, and it is therefore important that those working concentrated part-time check that the schedule in SSC Primula is up to date and matches their working hours. Employees must notify SSC themselves of any changes to the schedule via the SSC customer service portal.

SSC Portal – log in 24 hours a day

If you cannot agree on the timing of the annual leave

Always contact the nearest HR department at the faculty/equivalent in the event of a disagreement regarding the timing of the annual leave.

Accumulated annual leave entitlement

Any employee entitled to more than 20 days’ paid annual leave in a given calendar year may carry forward one or more of the excess days to a subsequent holiday year. An employee may have a maximum of 30 days’ accumulated annual leaave entitlement. Before accumulated annual leave can be taken, the current year’s annual leave entitlement must be used first.

Anyone wishing to use saved annual leave days must notify the employer of this when applying for holiday or at least two months in advance.

If, for special reasons, a certain portion of the annual leave has not been taken during the year, it is converted into saved holiday. If the unused annual leave cannot be accommodated within the 30 days that may be saved, annual leave pay is paid for the excess number of days. However, this does not mean that an employee may exchange holiday leave for money.

Illness or need for other leave during annual leave

If an employee falls ill during their annual leave or needs to take leave for another reason that qualifies for annual leave pay under Sections 17a–17b of the Annual Leave Act, the employee must notify the employer without delay (but no later than upon returning to work after the annual leave) that they wish to exchange their annual leave for sick leave or other leave. This is regulated in Section 15 of the Annual Leave Act. The exchange of an annual leave day may only relate to a full day.

Individual agreement to waive the annual leave allowance in favour of three days off

Under certain conditions, it is possible for an employer and an employee to enter into an agreement to waive the annual leave allowance in exchange for days off.

Contact

Always contact your nearest HR function in the first instance.

In some matters, based on your role, you can also contact the HR Division at Lund University. Read more on this page:

Find the right HR support | HR Pages

Last updated: 5 May 2026 | webbansvarig [at] hr [dot] lu [dot] se