Committee suggests more flexibility in annual leave

In September 2001, a committee set up by the Swedish government to examine a reform of working time and leave regulations raised the idea of allowing employees to take part of their annual leave entitlement in hours off, instead of full days of holiday.

In September 2001, a government committee on 'new working time and leave regulations', set up in late 2000 to examine the entire system of legislation on working hours and leave and propose changes which allow for greater individual choice (SE0101176N), submitted a preliminary report (SOU 2001:69). The committee's report states that it would be possible to establish a right for employees to take their statutory annual leave, exceeding four weeks per year, in the form of partial days off or hours off.

The Act on Annual Leave (Semesterlagen1977:480) aims to give all employees rest and recreation. Employees have a legal right to five weeks' annual leave, which may be built on by collective agreements. The law stipulates (in section 9) that annual leave should be taken in full days, and provides for a continuous holiday of at least four weeks per year. Some of the annual leave may be saved until the next year. The committee says that it is important that the idea of rest and recreation is maintained. On the other hand, it should be possible to take some of the annual leave entitlement in periods of less than a working day. This would make the legislation more flexible from the workers' point of view. A part of the annual leave could be used in more ways and for different purposes than is currently the case.

The committee suggests that the initiative to convert annual leave into 'leave by the hour' must come from the employee. If employees are unable to come to an agreement with the employer about when these hours off should be taken, the right to leave in full days should remain. The employer should not be able to impose the new 'leave by the hour' in any other way than according to the employee's wish.

The committee has not yet made any proposals on how 'leave by the hour' could be combined with other legal changes that would make the Act on Annual Leave easier to use. It might prove to be complicated to implement he idea of the new leave scheme in practice, especially for small enterprises. Therefore, the committee states, it is not yet making a firm proposal for amendments of the Act, but will do this in June 2002. This proposal will fulfil that part of the committee's brief that deals with a possible decrease of workers' total working hours, workers' influence over the distribution of working hours, and making the Act on Annual Leave simpler to use.