Sweden Employment Law

Employees are entitled to 25 full working days of annual leave every year regardless of employees’ age or type of employment. Employees are entitled to a continuous annual leave of 4 weeks during the period of June – August. Leave begins and ends with a day of annual leave.

Saturdays and Sundays shall not be counted as days of annual leave except if the period of annual leave is shorter than 5 days and if the employee is free on a Saturday or Sunday, which would otherwise have been a working day, that day shall be counted as a day of annual leave. A free day shall not be regarded as a day of annual leave. Public holidays and Midsummer’s Eve, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve shall be treated in the same manner as Sundays.

According to the contract of employment or collective agreement or both, employees may be entitled to an additional number of annual leave. The year after the qualifying year is called the annual leave year. This runs from 1 April until 31 March the year after that.

If an employee enters into new employment after 31 August in any given year then they are only entitled to 5 full days of annual leave until 1 April the following year.  Unless otherwise specified in a collective agreement or contract of employment, the employee will be allocated your annual vacation days on 1 April every year.

An employee who switches employment is entitled to annual leave in the new employment only to the extent that the employee has not already had such leave in the previous employment. In the case of employment which is intended to last for a maximum of 3 months and which does not last long, it may be agreed that holiday leave shall not be posted. In such a case, the employee is entitled to a holiday allowance.

An employee who switches employment is entitled to vacation leave in the new employment only to the extent that the employee has not already had such leave in the previous employment.

Day of Annual Leave with Pay – The days when the employee has been completely absent from work without pay shall be subtracted from the days that the employee has worked in the employer’s service during the qualifying year (period of employment). However, absence due to annual leave, lay-offs, short-time work, or parental leave affords an entitlement to holiday pay, and free days that fall during such periods of absence shall be included in the period of employment. The difference is divided by the number of days in the qualifying year. This factor is multiplied by twenty-five. Where the calculation results in a fraction, it shall be rounded up to the nearest whole number.

Leave without Pay – An employee may waive entitlement to annual leave without holiday pay. An employee is obliged to inform their employer about the wishes regarding taking of annual leave without pay or the extent to which the employee wishes to waive the entitlement to such leave.

Annual leave for Employees who regularly work Saturday or Sunday – An employee who regularly works on Saturday, Sunday, or both of these days is entitled to leave during a holiday break that lasts at least 5 days, partially during the annual leave, and either shortly before or immediately after the weekend.

If annual leave covers at least 19 days, the employee is entitled to leave correspondingly at the end of the week, both immediately before and immediately after the leave. 

Where an employee has time off of a corresponding duration on a day of the week which is not a Saturday or a Sunday, and this occurs during the period of annual leave, that weekday shall be counted as a day of annual leave.

An employee must be eligible for more than 20 days of annual leave to transfer 5 days of annual leave per year up to 5 consecutive years.

The employee shall notify their employer before they carry forward annual leaves prior to scheduling their leaves for the year. Days of annual leave that have been carried over shall be allocated to the annual leave year of the employee’s choice.

An employee who has carried over and intends to use at least 5 consecutive days from their accrued leaves, they shall also be entitled to remaining annual leave for the whole year consecutively, unless otherwise agreed. 

Termination – Annual leaves cannot be planned to fall during a notice of termination period, unless the employee agrees. When an employer issues a notice of termination and the notice period fully or substantially overlaps with an employee’s period of consent annual leave, the employee may request that the dates of their annual leave be modified.  When the notice period for termination is more than 6 months, the above exceptions do not apply.

Compensation in lieu of annual leave –  An employee is entitled to compensation in place of annual vacation if their employment ends before they’ve been paid their annual holiday pay. Employees who get compensation in lieu of annual leave must receive it within a month of their employment ending without undue delay. 

Unfit to Work or Ill during Annual leave – If an employee has one or more days during an annual leave period that they are unable to work due to illness or an occupational injury, or if they have one or more days that are credited for holiday pay, those days will not be counted towards their annual leave as long as they immediately request. Unless otherwise agreed, the employee is required to schedule the remaining days of annual leave consecutively.

Holiday Pay – Employers are required to pay each employee’s holiday pay along with their annual leave. An employee is entitled to 12% of the income during the qualifying year (the year preceding the annual holiday year). 

Annual leave that has not been carried forward and which could not be scheduled during the annual leave year is compensated by holiday pay and shall be paid not later than one month after the end of the annual leave year. However, annual leaves are paid only if the number of earned days during the qualifying years exceeds 25 days. Annual Leave Act, Sec 3 – 24.

An employee is entitled to sick pay from the first day of employment. If the agreed period of employment is shorter than 1 month, the right to sick pay only comes into play if the employee has taken up employment and has subsequently been employed for 14 consecutive calendar days. Days, when the employee was absent without a valid reason, are not included.

During the first 90 days, employees are entitled to sickness cash benefits if they are considered unable to cope with their normal work. After 90 days, employees are entitled to sickness cash benefits if they are considered unable to cope with their normal work or any other work that the employer can offer. After 180 days they are only entitled to sickness cash benefits if they are considered unable to work in any position on the normal employment market. However, there are certain exceptions. For example, an employee’s ability to work need not be assessed against the normal employment market when it is likely that employees can return to a job with their employer before 365 days have passed since they became sick or if such an assessment is unreasonable.

The employee has to inform their employer about their sickness. The employer is obliged to pay sickness benefits for the first 14 days at the employee’s normal salary. An amount is deducted (karensavdrag) from the sickness benefit. The deduction is 20% of the sickness benefit that an employee receives in an average calendar week. If you are away from work more than 7 days from work due to  sickness, the employee must submit a doctor’s certificate in order to continue to receive sick pay.

After 14 days, the employer must notify the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) that the employee is still sick. After that, employees can apply for sickness benefits from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan).

Right to leave to try other work due to illness – An employee has the right to be on leave from their employment to try other work according to their health condition. Due to illness, an employee has reduced ability to work or suitable work that the employer has temporarily offered the employee for a period of at least 90 days, and has entered into an employment contract with another employer during the period from and including day 91 to and including day 180 of the sick period.

An employee who wishes to use their right to leave must notify the employer no later than 2 weeks before the start of the leave and also include the duration of the leave. An employee may not be terminated or dismissed solely because the employee requests or claims his right to leave.   An employer who violates this shall be liable to a penalty. Sick Pay Act, 1991 (as amended)Act (2008:565) on the right to leave to try other work due to illness.

Duration of Maternity Leave – All employees are entitled to full leave in connection with the birth of their child for a continuous period of at least seven weeks before the estimated time of childbirth and seven weeks after childbirth. If she is not on leave on other grounds, two weeks of this maternity leave shall be compulsory during the period before or after the delivery. The right can be exercised only once for each child.

Pay – Female employees are entitled to 80% of the regular pay during this period as part of social security

Notice requirement – An employee who wants to use his right to leave must notify the employer of this at least two months before the start of the leave or, if this cannot happen, as soon as possible. In connection with their notification, the employee must state how long the leave is planned to last.

Period of Leave – Maternity leave must be included in the length of service for all purposes, including those relating to the thirteenth month’s salary or Christmas bonus and holidays.

Flexibility – An employee can choose to postpone the start of maternity leave, abstaining from work 1 x month before the expected date of birth and adding that month to the post-birth period. Parental Leave Act, 1995 (as amended), §§ 1­8-21.

A father is entitled to paid time off in connection with the birth or adoption of a child. Fathers may take 10 days’ leave in connection with the birth of a child. The 10 days leave must be taken before 60 days have passed since the childbirth or adoption. Parental Leave Act, 1995 (as amended), §§ 1­6.

There are the following various forms of parental leave for the care of children, etc.:

• • • Full leave for a parent until the child is 18 months or, provided that the parent then has a full parental allowance, for a period thereafter. The parental allowance period will be 60 days within the first 15 months of the child’s life. An employee who has adopted a child or received a child to adopt has the right to be completely free for 18 months from the time the worker received the child in his care. Leave expires when the child has reached the age of 8 or at a later date when the child has completed the first school year.
    • A parent can transfer their parental allowance entitlement to another insured individual  ( employees who are not parents but are parent’s spouse who permanently lives with the parent, common-law partner, guardian, prospective adoptive parent, and family home parent) by notifying the Swedish Social Insurance Agency in writing.  They are entitled to receive the same rights as the birth Parents such as parental allowance, and reduced work hours. However, once transferred, the recipient cannot transfer or waive the benefit further.  
    • Each parent with joint custody of a child can transfer a maximum of 45 days of parental leave to another insured person who is not a parent (parent’s spouse who permanently lives with the parent, common-law partner, guardian, prospective adoptive parent, and family home parent). If a parent has waived or transferred their parental allowance, they can reclaim the waiver or transfer for unused days.
    • Parent and any person who is caring for the child who is a parent equivalent shall be permitted to shorten their normal working hours by three-quarters, one-half, one-quarter, or one-eighth, while the parent has three-quarters, one-half, one-fourth, and one-eighth parental allowance, respectively.  In the case of shortening of working hours, leave may be spread over all the days of the work week or be placed on certain or some of the days of the work week.
    • Leave for a parent and any person who is caring for the child who is a parent equivalent in the form of shortening of normal working hours by up to a quarter until the child is eight years of age. A parent has the right to shorten normal working hours by up to a quarter for the care of a child who has not reached the age of eight or who is older than this but has not yet completed his first school year.
    • Leave for a worker’s temporary care for children.
    • Leave for a parent in the form of shortening of normal working hours by up to one quarter if the child is paid a nursing allowance.

The leave may be divided into a maximum of three periods for each calendar year. If a leave period extends over a turn of the year, it shall be considered to belong to the calendar year in which the leave began. In the event of a shortening of working hours, the leave may be spread over all days of the working week or placed on certain or certain days of the working week.

The employee may take full leave on the day or days that the employee requests. In the event of a shortening of working hours, the leave may be spread over all days of the working week or placed on certain or certain days of the working week.

Notification Requirement – An employee who wants to use his right to leave must notify the employer of this at least two months before the start of the leave or, if this cannot happen, as soon as possible. In connection with their notification, the employee must state how long the leave is planned to last. Parental Leave Act, 1995 (as amended), §§ 5-9.

A parent who needs to care for their child when the regular caregiver becomes ill or infected has the right to leave, even if the parent is not entitled to temporary parental allowance due to the:

• • • the child is younger than 240 days, or the child is younger than 240 days and the parent is covered under the Social Security Code.

Section 3 of the Social Security Code.

In addition to those discussed, employees may be entitled to various other kinds of leave, either under law or under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, including:

• • • • • Leave for Immigrants to study Swedish – An employee who has been admitted to municipal adult education in Swedish for immigrants or equivalent education at folk high school according to Chapter 20 or 24. The School Act (2010: 800) has the right to be vacant from its organization to participate in the teaching. The time during which an employee is unemployed under this Act is counted as worked time in the application of other regulations. The employer must be informed that the employee wants to exercise his right to leave at least one month before the start of the leave. The employee may interrupt an onset of leave and resume work to the same extent as before the leave. Act (1986:163) on the right to leave for education in Swedish for immigrants, Sec 1-3.
        • Leave for political assignments at the local and regional levels in another country – The elected representatives have the right to leave their employment which is necessary for them to fulfill their duties. Leave should include time for meetings of municipal bodies, other meetings necessary for the assignments, travel to and from meetings, and necessary daily rest immediately before or after the meetings. The right to leave shall also apply to proxy members, board deputies, and lay auditors or equivalent other auditors and their alternates in legal entities The elected representatives have the right to reasonable compensation for the income and financial benefits they lose when they fulfill their tasks.  Rev 2018: 26 Leave for political assignments at local and regional levels in another country.
        • Leave to Conduct Business – An employee is entitled to full unpaid leave from work for a maximum of 6 months in order to conduct business activities himself or through a legal person. However, the employee’s business must not compete with the employer’s business. The leave must also not cause significant inconvenience to the employer’s activities. The employee will be eligible for leave if they have been employed by the employer for either the last 6 months or a total of at least 12 months in the last 2 years. An employee who wishes to exercise the right to leave must notify the employer of this at least 3 months before the start of the leave. Act (1997: 1293) on the right to leave to conduct business: Sections 3 and 4.
        • Leave for urgent family reasons – An employee is entitled to full leave from their work during a period when they receive full related benefits from the social security bar and to shorten the working time to one-quarter, to one-half, or to three-quarters during a time when he or she receives three-quarters, half or a quarter’s compensation. Law (1998: 209) on the right to leave for urgent family reasons Section 1 & 2.

Under the 1974 Study Leave Act, employees have an absolute right to unpaid leaves of absence for study purposes when certain conditions are present. The study must be systematic but may be unrelated to the employee’s current work. The employee has an unconditional right to resume former employment, either the same job or an equivalent one, after completion of the studies or at an earlier date. Study Leave Act, 1974, §§ 3­1.