SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Robert Stromberg, Advokatfirman Cederquist KB
For full-time employees, overtime comprises working hours over regular working hours and on-call hours. Where additional working hours are required, overtime hours may not exceed 48 hours over a period of four weeks or 50 hours over a calendar month, subject to a maximum of 200 hours per calendar year. When there are special grounds, additional time in excess of general overtime may be worked, up to a maxi - mum of 150 hours per employee over a calendar year. Together, extra overtime and general overtime may not exceed 48 hours per employee over a period of four weeks, or 50 hours over a calendar month. Statutory law does not contain regulations regarding overtime pay, which is normally provided for in CBAs. In gen - eral, employees may choose to receive overtime pay in terms of money or compensatory leave. If no CBA exists, the employee is not entitled to overtime pay unless agreed upon individually. If a CBA exists and provides a right to overtime pay, it may contain provi - sions that allow the employee to waive the right to overtime pay and instead receive compensation in the form of compensatory leave. However, such a waiver usually only applies to employees who have flexible working hours or in cases of special circumstances. 1.4 Compensation There are no provisions regarding minimum wage requirements in Swedish law, but such provisions are often found in CBAs. In Sweden, it is common for employers and employ - ees to agree that part of the full salary will be paid as variable salary. The different types of variable sal - ary vary and can be paid out, inter alia, as commis - sion (eg, a certain percentage of the contractual sum for provided services) or as bonus (eg, variable sal - ary paid out under specific and determined targets with financial parameters of the performance of the employing company and/or personal performance of the employee). The payment of variable salary is not regulated in statute and is rather a matter of negotiation between the parties to the employment agreement. It is most common for the terms for the payment of variable salary to be set out in the employ - ment agreement, or for the variable salary targets and the payment of variable salary to be decided annually at the employer’s discretion. Variable salary generally qualifies for the payment of holiday pay in Sweden.
In Sweden, a 13th-month payment is not normally applied, but some employers do choose to award their employees with an annual bonus, paid at the company’s discretion, if the company has performed well during the year. Such a bonus is paid as a gratu - ity and normally does not qualify for holiday pay or occupational pension contributions. There is no general government intervention on com - pensation and salary increases in Sweden, but such matters are often regulated in CBAs. It should be noted that compensation in connection with holiday, parental and sick leave is statutorily regulated. 1.5 Other Employment Terms Holiday and Holiday Pay Holiday entitlement is regulated by the Annual Leave Act, which distinguishes between holiday days and holiday pay, and between a “holiday year” (1 April to 31 March) and a “qualifying year” (the 12 months prior to the holiday year). The normal and minimum holi - day entitlement is 25 days paid holiday per year. An employee earns their entitlement to holiday pay dur - ing the qualifying year and is entitled to use their paid holiday during the holiday year. CBAs or employment agreements generally contain rules entitling employ - ees to a more extended period of holiday – up to 30 days’ paid holiday – if the employee is not entitled to overtime pay. This is normally the case for white-collar employees. Employees are entitled to take a continuous four-week holiday from June to August, unless circumstances are justifying other arrangements. Employees who have been given a period of notice of termination of less than six months cannot be required to take their holi - day entitlement during the notice period, unless they agree to do so. Under certain conditions, employees are entitled to exchange a holiday that has already been scheduled for sick leave or parental leave, for example. Employees can carry over their entitlement to paid holiday days to the next holiday year (but not unpaid holiday days), provided the employee has earned more than 20 days of paid holiday, and only for those days that exceed 20 days. A CBA can make deviations from certain regulations in the Annual Leave Act.
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