Frequently asked questions on new vacation agreement

To the page on vacation for teaching and reasearching staff

Who is covered by the agreement?

All employees with the types of teaching positions listed in the Appointment Regulations for Uppsala University, as well as employees in the positions of researcher, postdoc, doctoral student, assistant with doctoral student duties and teaching assistants (Swedish: amanuens).

Whhen the agreement says "teacher", does it also mean doctoral students?

Yes, in this case, the word "teacher" is used as a collective term for everyone covered by the agreement. Thus can be a bit unclear, especially considering that:

teachers, according to the employment regulations, have annual working hours,
doctoral students and assistants with doctoral student duties also have annual working hours
researchers, postdocs and teaching assistants, however, have office working hours.

The stance of the Saco-S association is that researchers and postdocs should also have annual working hours, since their tasks are the same as teachers' (research and teaching). The difference between these groups is that researchers and postdocs' main task is research and they are only allowed to teach up to 20%.

Does the agreement also apply to those with combined positions?

Yes, this also applies to teachers with an employment combined with another type of employment, or with appointments at another employer, i.e., those who are sometimes impreciously called "combined employments" or "combined duties".

Apply for vacation by March 31

Do you need to apply for all vacation, including any saved vacation you want to take for the entire year by March 31?

Yes, the expectation is that you apply for all vacation days by March 31, including saving vacation and taking saved vacation.

Should you apply for all your vacation days by March 31, or is it enough to apply for 20 days?

It is intended that you should plan for all your vacation days by March 31. That is, apply for time off for the days you want to be off and apply to save the days you want to save.

Is it just about applying for vacation for the summer?

It is about all vacation during the year, as well as the possibility of saving and taking saved vacation.

Who wants to plan their winter vacation so early?

According to the old agreement, teaching and research staff who had a standard vacation were not entitled to vacation during the winter. The standard vacation meant that all vacation days were over in August. This meant that if the head of department called a meeting the day before Christmas Eve or in the days between, the employee had to show up to avoid being accused of refusing to work.

With the new agreement, the employee has the opportunity to plan their vacation so that there are days left until the winter vacation. We agree that it is early, but that is how it works in large parts of the labor market.

The agreement also makes it possible for the employee to agree with the head of department/equivalent to register the winter vacation days in Primula at a later date. However, it needs to be registered and certified by the head of department no later than September 15 if they are not to be automatically allocated according to the fixed model.

Our advice is to plan what you know and then adjust afterwards if you want to move a day here or there. For the employer, it is about being able to make the academic year's duty plans well in advance and therefore know whether anyone intends to save days or take saved days, as this affects the annual working hours for those who have annual working hours.

Annual working hours are for everyone who is a teacher according to the university's employment regulations and all doctoral students, but not researchers, postdoctoral fellows or assistants. Researchers, postdocs and teaching assistants have office working hours according to the TA agreement.

What do you do if you want days off around the turn of the year? Can/should you apply for vacation days for January 2027 now, no later than March 31 this year?

Our advice is that you apply for the vacation days as soon as you know which days you want to be off at the beginning of the new year. The employer needs to notify you no later than two months before the holiday if you are granted the holiday. Then the employer can also grant leave with shorter notice. This is just so that the employee is sure whether they have been granted leave or not. This can be important if they want to book a trip for the family.

If I want a holiday before March 31, do I apply before March 31?

Yes, then you apply for the days as soon as possible in Primula, in order to be able to receive notice in good time. According to the Annual Leave Act, the employer must provide notice no later than two months before the leave.

Is it possible to withdraw vacation days and change it if necessary after March 31?

It is possible to apply to take back vacation days and use them at another time.

It is also possible to agree with the head of department/equivalent to register holiday days for autumn and winter in Primula at a later date. However, it needs to be registered and certified by the head of department no later than September 15. Otherwise, these days will be registered as being taken during the summer according to the fixed model.

Is it possible to apply for only 20 days on March 31 and apply for the remaining days at another time if you have an agreement with your immediate supervisor?

Yes, this is the case if your immediate supervisor is a head of department/equivalent, since it is the head of department/equivalent who must approve the vacation day applications in Primula. Important in this context is that the remaining days need to be registered and certified by the head of department by September 15 if they are not to be automatically allocated according to the fixed model.

What happens if I only apply for 25 days by March 31 without explicit agreement with the employer?

In this case, the remaining vacation days will be allocated according to the fixed model starting from midsummer onwards until the remaining days are used up.

If you have applied for 20 days this summer and have agreed in consultation with your manager that the remaining 15 will be taken during the autumn - should those days then be submitted as 15 saved days and then applied for again in the autumn?

No, they should not be added as saved days, if it is the case that you intend to take the vacation days during the autumn. Saved vacation days means that the employer needs to plan for you to work more hours in the semester in which you save vacation days. It would be wrong in the planning if you indicated that you wanted to save vacation, but then take the days as leave. Then you will have worked more than you should.

What you should do instead is to agree with the head of department/equivalent to register the year's remaining vacation days in Primula at a later date. However, it needs to be registered and certified by the head of department no later than September 15 if they are not to be automatically allocated according to the fixed model.

The schedule is not set by March 31, so it is not possible to know what the autumn semester will look like, right?

The idea is that the organization should have a good enough idea of when the courses are given and approximately which teachers will teach the different courses, so that the teachers can plan their vacation. Of course, not all days of the week and rooms are scheduled yet, but we believe that it is good if this is done in consultation with the teacher concerned.

Should the teaching/work task plan be ready before the start of the semester/start of the calendar year? The scheduling is rarely complete before March 31 and we do not know the number of students. What is the union's recommendation to heads of departments and directors of studies for handling this?

Of course, the number of students plays a role in course planning and we also know that there are subjects where this can vary greatly between the different semesters.

Heads of departments and directors of studies should know which courses they have planned to offer in the coming semesters. They should know when the courses are given and which teachers are qualified to teach them. In this case, it is a good idea to plan both work task plans and vacation plans in good time in consultation with the teachers concerned, so that the teachers can plan their vacation.

The agreement also makes it possible to agree with the head of department/equivalent to register vacation days in Primula at a later date. However, it needs to be registered and certified by the head of department by September 15 if they are not to be automatically allocated according to the fixed model. To avoid any misunderstandings about what you have agreed on, the agreement needs to be documented in some way.

Doesn't the new agreement allow managers to apply as a strict rule that all vacations must be applied for by March 31?

Yes, the agreement states the date as March 31 and the employer has the right to demand that the vacation application be submitted by then. This particular date was one of the points that was important to the employer party. Since it is the same date as stated in the central agreement and also the same date that applies to all other employees at the university, we could not get any further on that issue.

If we had been without a contract locally at the university, then March 31 would still have applied to all employees.

The agreement allows you to agree with the head of department/equivalent when applying for the summer vacation to register the year's remaining vacation days in Primula at a later date. However, it needs to be registered and certified by the head of department by September 15 if they are not to be automatically allocated according to the fixed model.

It feels unnecessarily complicated to have to apply for all of this year's vacation by March 31. With other employers, it is easier by applying for the summer before a certain date, but otherwise applying continuously and in dialogue with the manager who attests on each occasion. No exceptions or agreements were needed. Why is this not possible with such an agreement?

We can only agree that it would have been better for us employees with a system where employees can apply for their vacation continuously, or a system in which the summer vacation is handled in a special order but that the remaining days are handled continuously.

The employer party in the negotiation was not interested in such a model, but the date of March 31 was important to them. The date comes from the central agreement, and if we had been without a contract locally at the university, then March 31 would still have applied to all employees.

However, the agreement allows that if you agree with the head of department/equivalent to register vacation days in Primula at a later date. If you wish to do so, it must be registered and certified by the head of department by 15 September if they are not to be automatically placed according to the fixed model. In order to avoid any ambiguities about what you have agreed upon, the agreement needs to be documented in some way.

For the employer, it is about being able to make the academic year's duty plans in good time and therefore know whether anyone intends to save days or take out saved days, as this affects the annual working hours for those who have annual working hours.

Annual working hours are available to all teachers according to the university's employment regulations and all doctoral students, but not to researchers, postdoctoral fellows or assistants. Researchers, postdoctoral fellows and assistants have office working hours according to the TA agreement.

Vacation according to the fixed model

What happens if you take vacation according to the fixed model, i.e. do not apply before March 31, but then need to work on research during the summer due to revision of manuscripts, applications or other research that needs to be done?

The employee then needs to apply to take back the vacation days. If the employer believes that the employee should be off work and not work during the relevant days, then the employer can deny the employee the right to take back the vacation days, this is regulated in the Annual Leave Act. This of course means that the work will not be done and can ultimately affect the employer if the employee does not meet important deadlines for research applications and reports.

If there should be a problem with this, please contact us and we will try to help in the best way possible. It is important for us to find out when the agreement is not working, so that we can fix it and get a working agreement.

You can always try to come to an agreement with your employer to move those vacation days to another time.

So in that case, do you need to actively take back the vacation days? How do you do that? In Primula?

Yes, in Primula.

If you are going on a business trip/conference during the summer (after midsummer), will the vacation days be automatically taken after you return or do you have to apply for vacation days manually?

If you are planning to go on a business trip/conference during the summer, you need to apply for vacation on March 31 to be sure that you will be able to go on the business trip/conference.

If you do not know on March 31 that you will be going on a business trip/conference during the summer, then you should apply to reclaim vacation for these days as soon as possible. This is not done automatically. It is also important in this context that if you work when you should be off, you are not covered by the university's insurance.

Then you apply for when you want the days instead. If you have not applied and been granted the remaining days by September 15, they will be allocated automatically in accordance with the fixed model. This means that if you have all your vacation booked according to the fixed model, then you are not entitled to be off during the autumn or winter.

Many teachers cannot handle "another form" and there is a risk that this will become a laborious administrative task. Can those who do not feel the need to do so get rid of the primrose on March 31 and keep the standard vacation?

If it is the case that you want all your vacation from midsummer and until all days are up, according to the fixed model, then you do not need to apply for vacation on March 31.

We know that the old agreement with standard vacation was sometimes applied in a way that has meant that teaching and research staff have not always had vacation when it has suited them. It was an application that violated the agreement and where employees ended up in a bind in many different ways. That is why the parties have chosen not to use the term "standard vacation" in the new agreement. All vacation after midsummer is called "vacation according to the fixed model".

Both employees and employers need to know when the employee is on vacation. This has not always been the case, which the new agreement tries to remedy. We have employees who have not been on vacation for several years and they have thought that the vacation has been saved. This is one of the things we are trying to address with this agreement.

Doctoral students and vacation

If you, as a doctoral student, receive your new employment contract every year in June and it applies to September-August, i.e., in March this year, I have no employment after August registered in Primula. How should I apply for all vacation then?

The situation of the doctoral students is one of the most important parts of this agreement. The doctoral students should also be able to plan vacation.

We also know that it is not entirely unusual for doctoral students' employment contracts to run until the end of the semester and that all vacation days are not in place in Primula on March 31. You are absolutely right that it is not possible to apply for all vacation at once. What we have written in the agreement is that the doctoral students' vacation must be documented in some way, for example in the individual study plan (ISP). The good thing about the ISP is that it is less of a blunt instrument than Primula.

So, our advice is to:

apply for the vacation you can and want by March 31,
agree with the department about when you want and can have the remaining vacation,
document the vacation, for example, in the individual study plan.
enter the remaining vacation in Primula so that it can be certified by the head of department no later than September 15.

Don't forget that you have the right to save vacation for later years if you don't have time to be off due to various types of deadlines
Finally: don't forget that it is important to take time off!

Should doctoral students' vacation be included in the ISP? It is revised every year in October/November with us, so how will they know about vacation for next year then? Do we have to change the time for ISP revision?

What we have written is that doctoral students' vacation should be documented. We discussed the ISP because it is a planning tool and it is good to be able to plan the vacation in connection with the doctoral student planning the coming year's education, research and possible teaching.

It doesn't have to be in the ISP. It could be an appendix to the ISP, but it needs to be consistent with what is written in the ISP. It must not be the case that the ISP states that the doctoral student will go out on fieldwork during the summer, but that the doctoral student has vacation according to a fixed model.

It is important that doctoral students also have the right to vacation, the right to leave. Supervisors should not be able to demand articles and book chapters when the doctoral student is off. If the supervisor requires the doctoral student to work during the summer, then the doctoral student should apply for the return of vacation. This is one of the parts that did not work at all with the old agreement.

Parental leave and vacation

It feels worse for me and worse for the university because as a person on leave of absence, I have been asked not to take standard vacation in order for it to work with pay. Now I have to book the entire year's vacation and will not be able to meet the requirements of the poor souls at payroll.

If you do not apply for vacation but let the fixed model run, there should be no difference from before. When vacation days clash with parental leave, they are saved. You should be able to take vacation during the fall and winter, but then you need to agree with the head of department/equivalent to register the winter vacation days in Primula at a later date. However, it needs to be registered and certified by the head of department no later than September 15 for it to be smooth for the Payroll Unit.

Does this mean that you need to apply for parental leave for the entire year before March 31?

Parental leave must be applied for two months before it is due to start. If you want to apply for any vacation for the year, you need to apply for vacation leave no later than March 31. Otherwise, vacation according to the fixed model will be applied and the vacation days will be allocated. When vacation days clash with parental leave, they will be saved.