Content of the work task plan

Collective agreements regulating teaching and working hours at Uppsala University

According to the working hours agreement that applies to teachers, a work task plan must be drawn up for each individual teacher. The planning must be done in consultation with the teacher concerned. Before the employer (head of department or other) finalises the plan, the relevant local trade union organisation must be notified. This is stated in the central collective agreements called Villkorsavtal as well as in the local working hours agreement for teachers. The work task plans must be made available to the employee organisations before the planning period starts.

Local collective agreement on teaching and working hours etc. for teachers (UFV-PA 2022/4981)

Local collective agreement on teaching for researchers at Uppsala University (UFV-PA 2022/4982)

Local collective agreement on teaching and working hours etc. for doctoral students at Uppsala University (UFV-PA 2022/4983)

Who should be covered by the work task plan?

There must be a work task plan for all teachers and we strongly recommend that researchers, postdocs and doctoral students who teach also have one. A work task plan must be submitted regardless of whether the employees are union members or not, including those with fixed-term contracts (VIK, SÄVA) or are employed part-time.

What needs to be included in a work task plan?

The work task plans must, for each employee with a teaching assignment, contain:

1. Annual working hours (1756/1732/1700 h)
2. First and last name
3. Position
4. Scope of employment (for the semester/academic year/calendar year/dates in percentage or hours)
5. Possible reductions (for the semester/academic year/calendar year/dates in percentage or hours)
6. Possible appointments (head of department, director of studies, external appointment, etc.) (for the semester/academic year/calendar year/dates in percentage or hours)
7. How teaching hours are calculated (conversion rate/conversion factor based on lecturer hours)
8. Possible agreements on saved research or surplus teaching from previous semesters

As well as planned time (in hours or percentage) for:

1. Administration
2. Research/skills development
3. Teaching (includes supervision of doctoral students)

What information do we need regarding teaching?

1. Which courses does the teacher teach
2. Number of hours for each course
3. Type of teaching (course management, lectures, seminars, supervision, etc.)
4. How is teaching distributed during the period (semester or year)

How should one think about the time for administration?

What is called “administration” in the working hours agreement is actually more or less everything that the employer needs for the department to function, but which is not directly the individual teacher’s teaching or research. These are staff meetings, staff days, kick-off's. employee dialogues, development dialogues, salary dialogues, meetings with the teaching team, subject evaluations, appointments in the department board etc.

The important thing about administrative time is that what the department chooses to include in the administrative time should also be able to be done within that time. It is entirely possible to get additional time for, for example, subject evaluations or appointments in the department board.

Our recommendations regarding administration

In cases where it can be justified that administration is part of an appointment, such as that as head of department, where one can be expected to participate in departmental board meetings and staff meetings as part of their role, then administration can be reduced somewhat in proportion to the scope of the appointment.

If the employee has an appointment, such as an expert at the Swedish Research Council, the department needs to ensure that all administrative tasks are given the time they are expected to take, but should be at least 10%.

Saco-S at Uppsala University believes that there may be reasons to consider whether the number of hours for employee dialogues, salary dialogues, staff meetings and the like should be less for those who work part-time or whether there are reasons for them to also be given the same opportunity to participate in the activities on the same terms as those who work full-time. All work tasks should be accommodated within the framework of the employment.

What does a work task plan look like?

The information above can be presented in different ways. The important thing for us is to have them presented per person, since the agreement is based on the planning of the individual employee's planned work tasks. If the employer also has a plan divided by course, we are happy to accept it.

Below you can see an example of how it would be possible to present the work task plan with one page per employee.

Some departments have made it so that they have a large overview file in, for example, Excel with all employees and courses and can take a plan for an individual employee from it.

These examples do not include fill-in options for combined employment or those with clinical duties. However, this is easy to include in such a document by adding a row or column.