University working time and annual time off 

Working time

University teaching and research staff use total working time 

The collective agreement for universities sets the annual working time for university teaching and research staff at 1,612 hours. The employee is personally responsible for their working time and how they spend it on the tasks specified in the work plan. When necessary, the employee and their supervisor will review the realisation of the work plan and the results of the work in terms of total working time during the term. 

Each individual drafts their annual work plan in collaboration with their supervisor. When drafting the work plan, the person’s workload in teaching, research, and other tasks is taken into account. Work plans within a unit should be coordinated so that every person has the opportunity for a research period free of teaching and administrative work. 

The work plan should take into account longer absences, such as family leaves, which may essentially impact the content of the work plan. Following a longer absence, the realisation of the work plan prior to the absence should be reviewed and necessary changes made. If new tasks are agreed upon during the academic year that cannot be considered to be part of the duties covered by the work plan, the work plan must be modified accordingly. 

The new collective agreement for universities for 2025–2028 emphasises the role of work plans in managing workload. Monitor your working hours and tell your supervisor about any changes so that your work plan can be modified to support your wellbeing at work.   

The new collective agreement increases local bargaining on the principles of work plans. The universities’ own implementation instructions receive equal weight to local bargaining. JUKO shop stewards negotiate on university-specific implementation and agreements.   

University-specific bargaining can be used to confirm the principles currently used for drafting work plans or agree upon new implementation practices. If mutual understanding cannot be reached or the parties disagree on the targets for developing working time planning, the university may launch a two-year pilot which will trial a form of working time planning aimed at all teaching duties, not just teaching hours. During the pilot, the amount of working time spent on teaching may not rise. The pilot requires both careful working time planning and monitoring to ensure the workload of an individual member of the university does not increase to a level that compromises their wellbeing at work.  

Other expert and support staff are covered by the Working Time Act 

The regular working time is on average no more than 7 hours 15 minutes per day and 36 hours 15 minutes per week. 

Annual holiday

Other expert and support staff at universities

The determination of the annual holiday in accordance with the length of the employment is described in the collective agreement for universities (Chapter 2: Regulations on annual holidays). 

Persons under the working time regulations of teaching and research staff are subject to the collective agreement’s annual holiday regulations only in terms of holiday pay. Adequate annual resting time for teaching and research staff is ensured in the work plan.