Leave for another employment
This page details rules concerning leave for another employment.
It is important to separate leaves that must be granted and leaves that may be granted.
Note that leave for Ph.D. studies should be applied for as study leave in Primula web.
Leave that must be granted (13 Ch 2 § Villkorsavtal/ Villkorsavtal-T)
An employee has the right to leave for another employment – provided s/he has a permanent position and is offered another time-limited position in a governmental agency. In that case, the employee has the right to leave of absence for up to two years. The employee must have been employed at the permanent position for more than 12 months before the beginning of the leave. A probationary employment period is included in the qualification criteria according to LAS 6§. To gain a new period of leave, the employee must return to their position for at least 12 months. Should the time-limited position be extended, the re-qualification scenario is not valid.
The limitation to two years of leave is not relevant for other governmental employment that may be time-limited to longer than two years according to The Higher Education Act. In that case, the employee has the right to a longer leave of absence.
Leaves that may be granted (13 Ch 3 § Villkorsavtal/ Villkorsavtal-T)
The employer may grant longer leaves of absence even in other cases. The normal case is six months – a longer period if the employer deems that special reasons exist. Such instances can include employment with a municipal, county or private agency (time-limited or permanent). Uppsala University specifies this according to 13 Ch. 3§ Villkorsavtal/ Villkorsavtal-T in the local collective agreement: The employer (head of department/equivalent) may in addition to what is regulated in 13 Ch. 3§ Villkorsavtal/ Villkorsavtal-T grant a leave of absence for a maximum of six months, provided that this can be done without disadvantages to the agency’s activities.
In addition, leave may be granted for a longer period of time when this would be to the agency’s advantage.
Employment with or without pension benefits?
From 2007, the National Government Employee Pensions Board (SPV) has requested clearer information from governmental agencies regarding right to pension benefits for employees who are on leave for employment elsewhere.
The agency must state whether the person is on leave for employment elsewhere with or without occupational pension benefits.
The employee must state on their application for leave of absence whether the new employment is with or without occupational pension benefits. Such information may be had from the new employer.
Use the form Ansökan om ledighet annan anställning (4.0.2 ) .
Leave for other employment - professors
A professor’s leave for another employment extending in total over one year must be decided by the Vice-Chancellor. An application must be submitted at two months before the beginning of the leave, at the latest.Steps
- A requested leave is approved or denied and reasons are submitted from both head of department/equivalent and dean or vice-rector.
- The case is sent to the payroll specialist who registers the case in the payroll system as preliminary.
- The case is prepared by the HR division and presented to the vice chancellor, who makes the final decision.
- The payroll specialist sends the decision to the department/equivalent.
- The department/equivalent distributes the decision to the professor concerned.
Ansökan om ledighet annan anställning (4.0.2 ) should be used.
Leave for another employment – Teachers, TA staff
Leaves for another employment for teachers and TA staff that extends over a year in total is granted by the HR director. An application must be made two months before the leave begins.
Steps
- A requested leave is approved or denied by the line manager/equivalent.
- The case is sent to the head of department who approves or denies the case if it concerns a year or less. When the application concerns leave for more than a year, the case is sent to the HR director.
- The approved application is sent to the payroll specialist who registers the leave in the payroll system.
- If the application is denied, it is returned to the department/equivalent and the employee.
Ansökan om ledighet annan anställning (4.0.2 ) should be used. In addition, the Higher Education Act (1984:111) §5 regulates possibilities for leave for employment abroad in certain specified cases.
Important considerations when assessing long-term leave applications.
When considering applications for leaves of absence, it is important that the head of department/equivalent assess the situation from a long-term perspective. There might be situations when it may be to the advantage for the department to approve of a leave for another employment during an extended period of time. It may be valuable that the person represents the university in the other position, or that the university will gain valuable experience from another agency when the employee returns.
Extended leaves for other employments must be weighed in each case against the inconvenience that may occur for the agency. In most cases, there are reasons for being restrictive in granting long leaves for other employments. Furthermore, the collective agreements supports this restrictive standpoint.For example:
- It may not be without problems for the agency when the employee returns after a long leave of absence.
- The leave (without pay) will carry some costs anyway, since the university covers some pension costs to ensure the index-linked value of the employee’s retirement pension – in some cases c. 30 000 SEK annually.
- Long-term temporary positions is a disadvantage for the agency. Such employment conditions may make it difficult to retain staff for a long time.
- The university risk having two employees, since after two years of substitute employment, the substitute will automatically gain a permanent position, according to 5 § LAS .
- Additionally, if the substitute position concerns a teaching position and continues until the LAS rule comes into force, the Higher Education Act, the university’s employment regulations and the guidelines for employing teaching staff are all broken, since they all prescribe public notice of positions and recruitment using expert reviews (see also AD 2004:58, Sveriges universitetslärarförbund / Lunds universitet)
Contact
External links
Villkorsavtal/ Villkorsavtal-T (in Swedish only)Tjänstledighetsförordningen (in Swedish only)