What must your employer put in writing?
The rules on what you and your employer owe each other are called labour law (arbetsrätt). They run in both directions: you get protections, and you take on duties the day you start.
Swedish law sets out which terms your employer must confirm in writing. Within seven calendar days of your first working day, your employer must tell you in writing:
- the names and addresses of you and the employer, your start date and where you will work,
- your job title and a short description of your tasks,
- whether the job is permanent, fixed-term or probationary, with the notice period, end date or length of the trial period,
- your starting salary, other pay and how often you are paid,
- your normal working day or week, what applies to overtime, and how much notice you get of your schedule,
- if you are hired out through a staffing agency, the names and addresses of the client companies.
Within one month you should also learn about any training the employer provides, paid holiday, the rules for ending the job, confirmation that employer contributions are paid to the state, any social protection the employer itself provides, and which collective agreement applies, if any. Later changes must be confirmed in writing by the day they take effect.
Read the document before you sign or accept it. Check that the end date of a fixed-term job is right and that the hours match what you agreed, whether full-time, part-time or hours only when needed.
Our guide to employment types explains permanent, fixed-term and probationary jobs.
Working hours, overtime and rest
Your employer schedules working time within the limits of the Working Hours Act (Arbetstidslagen):
| Rule | Limit |
|---|---|
| Ordinary working time | 40 hours a week |
| General overtime | 48 hours per four weeks or 50 hours per calendar month, and 200 hours a year |
| Total working time | 48 hours a week on average |
| Daily rest | 11 consecutive hours in every 24 |
| Weekly rest | 36 consecutive hours in every seven days |
| Breaks | No more than five hours of work in a row without a break |
Collective agreements can replace many of these rules, and senior managers are largely exempt. Arbetsmiljöverket summarises the Working Hours Act in English.
Who sets your hours
Within those limits, your employer decides when you work. Some workplaces ask you to log your hours in a time system. Many offices, universities included, use flexitime, where you choose your start and finish within set bands; that freedom comes from a local agreement or from rules your employer has formally announced.
Your schedule is a commitment
A schedule fixes which days and hours you work, and it binds both sides. Your employer should give you at least two weeks' notice of a change, unless something unforeseen makes that impossible. If a manager sends you home or cancels hours that were agreed, you are as a rule still owed pay for that time.
Holiday
All employees, whatever their age or type of contract, have the right to 25 days of holiday per holiday year, which normally runs from 1 April to 31 March. Unless something else has been agreed, you can take at least four weeks in a row during June to August. The one exception to the 25 days: in a job meant to last three months or less, you and your employer may agree that no holiday is taken and that you are paid holiday pay instead.
Holiday exists so you can rest and recover, so plan to actually take it. Paid days are earned during the previous year, so in your first year some days may be unpaid. If you start after 31 August, you are entitled to only five days of holiday that holiday year. Collective agreements and individual contracts can give you more than the legal minimum. Verksamt, the Swedish agencies' joint portal for businesses, sets out the rules on holiday and other leave (in Swedish).
If you or your child get sick
Your own illness
If you are ill, you have the right to stay home from work. Report sick to your employer on the first day. For the first 14 days, your employer pays sick pay of 80 percent of your pay, minus a qualifying deduction (karensavdrag) equal to 20 percent of an average week's sick pay. From the eighth day, you need a doctor's certificate to keep receiving sick pay. After two weeks, you apply to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) for sickness benefit.
On a contract agreed for less than one month, the right to sick pay only begins once you have started and been employed for 14 calendar days in a row, under section 3 of the Sick Pay Act (in Swedish). Försäkringskassan's page on sick pay sets out the same rule.
How you report sick is up to your employer: a phone call to your manager, an email, or a digital absence system. Ask on your first day so you know the routine before you need it. Försäkringskassan explains sick pay and sickness benefit for employees.
Your child's illness
When a child aged eight months to 12 years is sick, either parent can stay home on temporary parental benefit, known as VAB. You can get it for up to 120 days a year. Tell your employer, then apply to Försäkringskassan within 30 days of the first day at home. From the eighth day, Försäkringskassan needs a certificate from a doctor or nurse. Details are on Försäkringskassan's VAB page.
A safe workplace and injuries at work
Your employer carries the main responsibility for making sure you can work without getting ill or hurt. Under the Work Environment Act (Arbetsmiljölagen), that covers more than machines and chemicals: workload, organisation and the social climate count too. Arbetsmiljöverket has an English summary of the Work Environment Act.
Your safety representative (skyddsombud) is a colleague chosen to speak for employees on these questions. They can ask the employer to fix a problem and, in some situations, stop work until it is safe. Go to them early if something worries you, whether it is a lab procedure or an unmanageable workload.
If you are hurt at work
If you have an accident at work or get ill because of it, you may be entitled to compensation. Start by telling your employer. The employer must report the injury to Försäkringskassan, and serious accidents and incidents to Arbetsmiljöverket, and should do so together with you and the safety representative; you get a copy. Reports are made through the joint service anmalarbetsskada.se (in Swedish). Your safety representative can help you through it, and Försäkringskassan describes compensation for work injuries.
Parental leave and your pension
Parental benefit (föräldrapenning) is paid by Försäkringskassan, not your employer. Each child gives the parents up to 480 days of it; a child who moves here from outside the EU, the EEA or Switzerland at age one or older gives fewer, as the social security guide explains. For 390 of them the payment is based on your income, through what Försäkringskassan calls your sickness benefit qualifying income (SGI), and 90 of those are reserved for each parent and cannot be transferred. Days can be used until the child turns 12 or finishes year 5 of school. Read Försäkringskassan's guide to parental benefit before you plan the split.
You also have the right to take full-time leave until your child is 18 months old. Tell your employer at least two months before your leave starts. An employer may not treat you worse because you take parental leave.
Leave affects your pension. You keep earning public pension while on parental benefit, but your occupational pension may be affected depending on your agreement. The Swedish Pensions Agency explains how the early childhood years can affect your pension (in Swedish).
What your employer can expect from you
Rights come with duties. As an employee you are expected to:
- work the agreed hours and carry out your tasks,
- follow reasonable instructions, workplace rules and safety rules, and use protective equipment where required,
- be loyal to your employer, which means not running activities that compete with it or doing things, at work or in your free time, that harm it,
- keep information confidential when you have signed a confidentiality agreement.
Your employer is responsible for a safe work environment; your safety representative (skyddsombud) can help if you see a risk.
Side jobs
An employer may not forbid you from also working for someone else, unless the second job gets in the way of your work, competes with the employer in a harmful way, or otherwise damages the business. That protection covers employment with another employer. Consulting or running your own company on the side is judged against your duty of loyalty, so raise it with your manager before you start, and check what your contract and any collective agreement say.
Speaking up and criticism
Loyalty does not mean silence. You can raise criticism inside the organisation, as long as it is factual and goes through the proper channels. Going public is different: in a private company, the duty of loyalty limits how far you can criticise your employer outside the workplace. Staff at government agencies, including most universities, have especially strong constitutional protection when they pass information to the media.
If you report serious wrongdoing in the public interest, the Whistleblower Act protects you from retaliation, in both private and public employment. Employers with 50 or more employees must offer an internal reporting channel. Arbetsmiljöverket explains the Whistleblower Act (in Swedish). If you are unsure where the line is, your union can advise.
Equal treatment is a right as well: our guide to equality and discrimination covers what employers may not do. For a broader picture of working in Sweden, the Swedish Institute's sweden.se is a useful starting point.
How this applies at universities
Most Swedish universities are government agencies, so their staff are state employees. Pay and conditions follow central agreements between the Swedish Agency for Government Employers (Arbetsgivarverket) and the unions Saco-S, OFR and Seko.
State employees face stricter side-job rules: nothing that could damage confidence in your impartiality, hinder your work or compete with your employer. University teachers must also keep the university informed about side jobs related to their subject. Arbetsgivarverket's guidance on secondary occupations (in Swedish) sets out the rules.
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Common questions
How many vacation days do you get in Sweden?
The Annual Leave Act gives employees 25 days of holiday a year, regardless of age or type of contract, and agreements can give more. In your first year some days may be unpaid. In a job meant to last three months or less, you can agree to take holiday pay instead of days off.
Who pays when I am sick in Sweden?
Your employer pays sick pay for the first 14 days, at 80 percent of your pay minus a qualifying deduction. On a contract shorter than one month, that right starts only after 14 days in a row of employment. From day 15, you apply to Försäkringskassan for sickness benefit. From the eighth day, you need a doctor's certificate to keep receiving sick pay.
Can I have a side job while working at a Swedish university?
Often yes, but as a state employee you must avoid side jobs that could damage confidence in your impartiality, hinder your work or compete with the university. University teachers must keep their employer informed about side jobs connected to their field.