At the collective agreement negotiations in 2024, the Ministry of Finance and the central organisations have entered into a circular on the agreement on saving time off, which will take effect from May Day 2025.
Office trainees are exempt from the agreement.
This is not new time off, but a new opportunity to save already existing time off.
The option to take special holidays exactly as you usually do remains. So if you have already planned your special holidays and want to take them as planned, you don't need to do anything else.
Saving up time off does not replace the option to transfer holiday days to the next holiday year. You still have this option.
The rules are described in more detail below.
As an employee, you have the right to save up time off for later use. This applies to the following time off:
- Saving of special holiday days
- Saving time off in lieu earned as compensation for overtime and extra work, cf. relevant collective agreements.
Ordinary flexitime is not covered and can therefore not be saved according to these rules.
If you as an employee have earned special holiday days, you can save up special holiday days to be taken at a later date. At any given time, you can save up a maximum of 15 days off. A maximum of 8 days off in total can be saved according to the rules on overtime and extra work and 15 days in total including special holiday days.
If you wish to accumulate special holiday days, you must request this via the request form (SDU Forms) before 1 September during the special holiday period. The request form is available on SDUnet throughout August.
Example: If you want to save 3 of your 5 special holiday days accured during the 2024 holiday year (those that become available May Day 2025), you must request this via the request form by 1 September 2025.
The special holiday days that are then in the savings account in HCM must be used according to the applicable rules.
As an employee, you can save time off in lieu earned as compensation for overtime and extra work, including:
- Overtime according to Section 8 of the Danish Working Hours Agreement
- Overtime according to Section 9 of the National Working Hours Agreement
- Weekend work according to Section 14 of the National Working Hours Agreement
- Converted inconvenience allowance under section 13 of the Danish Working Hours Agreement
- Additional work according to Section 14 of the Collective Agreement for Academics in the State
Example: The State Working Hours Agreement applies to employees covered by the OAO-S Collective Agreement and employees covered by the CO10 Collective Agreement. This means, for example, employees under the HK collective agreement, administrative officers/senior secretaries, laboratory technicians, IT employees, attendants and workshop managers, etc. If you are unsure whether you are covered by the national working time agreement, you can contact SDU HR Employees. You can also contact your union representative/staff representative.
The State Working Hours Agreement does NOT apply to employees covered by the Akademiker Fællesoverenskomsten (AC collective agreement). For this group of employees, only compensation for overtime and extra work will apply according to the rules in section 14 of the AC collective agreement, which at SDU only applies to AC administrative officers and academic employees.
Employees must notify their line manager of their savings before the end of the time off in lieu period, i.e. no later than three months after the end of the calculation period, cf. section 10 subsection 1 of the Danish Working Time Agreement.
A maximum of 8 days off in total may be saved according to rules on overtime and extra work, and 15 days in total including special holidays.
If you have agreed to have the hours honoured as a payment, the hours cannot be accrued.
You should be aware of whether there are separate local agreements in your area that specify other agreements regarding overtime and extra work according to these rules.
The accrued time off can be taken in hours or days as agreed with the manager.
The accrued time off is paid with the salary and any supplements that follow from the applicable rules for the type of time off in question at the time it is taken.
You can take up to 8 days off per calendar year, and up to 2 days in a row.
The time is determined in agreement with your line manager, who, to the extent that it is compatible with operations, must agree to take time off in accordance with your request.
If you wish to take more time off than 8 days per year or more than 2 consecutive days off, this can only be agreed with your manager.
As an employee, you must inform your manager of the type of time off you wish to take. This means that you must state whether it is saved-up special holiday days or overtime and extra work that you want to use in connection with taking the time off.
If you as an employee are sick when a scheduled time off begins, you are not obliged to start the time off. You must therefore report sick before the start of working hours on days when you had planned to take time off.
If you fall ill while taking your savings days, the days will be taken as planned.
There are no rules for when the saved time off must be used.
There are only rules for the number of days that can be saved and the framework for taking it.
At SDU, it has been decided that special holiday days cannot be paid out.
Special holiday days are administered in HCM via a request form in SDU-Forms.
Overtime and extra work is administered locally in an Excel sheet by the absence managers.
- Employees request to save special holiday days via the request form (SDU Forms) before 1 September.
- SDU HR moves the special holiday days to "Saving special holiday days" in HCM.
The request form is entered records in WorkZone by SDU HR on the individual employee with the title "Documentation for saving special holiday days (year)"
- The employee makes an agreement with the line manager about saving time off in lieu earned as compensation in accordance with the rules in the Danish Working Hours Agreement on overtime and extra work (section 8 / section 9) and weekend work (section 14), converted inconvenience allowance (section 13) and extra work in accordance with the collective agreement for academics in the state (section 14).
- The local absence manager records the hours/days in an Excel spreadsheet.
Agreement on accrued time off in lieu earned as compensation for overtime and additional work must be entered records in WorkZone by SDU HR for the individual employee with the title "Documentation for accrued time off in lieu (year)".
- The employee agrees the taking of accrued time off with the line manager and notifies the absence manager.
- The employee sends a request form (SDU-Forms) to SDU HR for the transfer of saved special holiday days to special holiday days.
- SDU HR moves the saved special holiday days in HCM so that employees can schedule the days to be taken in HCM.
- When taking accrued time off as compensation for overtime and extra work, the local absence manager writes down the employee's balance in the Excel sheet.
SDU HR enters records in WorkZone by SDU HR on the individual employee with the title "Documentation for taking accumulated time off (year)".