Working hours

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Working hours for technical and administrative employees

Normal working hours

The normal working hours in the state sector are from 7am to 5pm as an outer framework.

The working-hour provisions in chapter 10 of the Norwegian Working Environment Act, together with the Basic Collective Agreement and Basic Agreement, set the frameworks for the working hours and work in excess of the normal working hours.

Technical and administrative personnel at UiO have different working hours in the summer and winter:

• From 15 May to 14 September, the working hours are 08:00-15:00.
• From 15 September to 14 May, the working hours are 08:00-15:45.

Technical and administrative personnel have lunch included in their working hours and are to be available to their employer.
 

Flexitime and other schemes

• UiO has introduced public-sector flexible working hours (sph.dep.no) (Norwegian) for technical and administrative personnel.
• Work time and absence is to be registered in the HR portal, see user guide.
• For employees who are governed by the flexitime scheme the core work period is 09:00 am to 14:30 pm throughout the whole year. The maximum work time is 12 hours per day.
• Also employees on part-time sick leave may - with their superior's and doctor's consent - work flexible hours. However, in total it is not possible to accummulate plus hours in the course of the sick leave period as this would conflict with the sick leave degree stated in the medical certificate, cf. Special Agreement on Flexible Working Hours in the Public Sector I.3. and note 2 (sph.dep.no) (Norwegian).
• After consultations with the trade unions the agreement was reached that the settlement date for transferring plus or minus work hours shall be 1 January every year. It is not possible to transfer more than 45 plus hours and 10 minus hours. Read more about settlement of flexitime (Norwegian).

Working hours for academic employees

Exceptions from ordinary working hours regulations

As a main rule, employees in scientific positions are regarded as occupying “particularly independent posts”, cf. section 10-12, second paragraph of the Norwegian Working Environment Act and section 13 no. 4 of the Basic Collective Agreement. This applies to posts such as lecturer, associate professor, professor, researcher, post-doctoral research fellow, scholarship holder and specialist graduate. As an automatic consequence of the above, these employees will not be governed by normal working hours regulations. More detailed information is provided in the guidelines for Regulation of Working Hours for Employees in Scientific Posts at the University of Oslo.
 

Normal working hours

Academic employees have the same working hours all year, and the 30-minute lunch break is unpaid and comes in addition to the 37.5 hours a week.
 

Teaching

Teaching is to be carried out during the normal working hours unless the nature of the teaching means that it has to take place at other times. In such cases, the employer may order an individual employee to provide teaching, for example in the case of higher and further education whose target group is people who are working full-time. Other working-hour schemes may be agreed on within the frameworks of §7, no. 8 of the Basic Collective Agreement (Norwegian) (sph.dep.no) and section 10-5 of the Working Environment Act (pdf) (arbeidstylsynet.no).
 

Presence at work

All employees of the University of Oslo are to be present in the workplace during working hours unless professional or other grounds mean that the work has to take place elsewhere. In such cases, this is to be pursuant to the consent of the unit’s management and in accordance with the prevailing rules governing absences.
 

Normal distribution of tasks for research and teaching personnel

It is assumed that the local employer will follow up the individual employee and that plans and documentation exist for both the unit’s and the individual’s activities.
Refer to Guidelines for the normal distribution of work obligations during working hours for combined research and teaching positions

According to the guidelines, the starting point is a normal 50/50 distribution between research and teaching over time within the frameworks applicable to the individual department, and as a rule the equivalent for the individual member of the research staff.

For a university lecturer with and without promotion to an associate professor, the working hours are normally to be distributed as follows:

• 75 per cent spent on teaching assignments
• 15 per cent spent on professional development work
• 10 per cent spent on administration

The distribution stated in the Regulations concerning terms and conditions of employment for the posts of post-doctoral research fellow, research fellow, research assistant and resident applies to recruitment and education jobs.

Days off for senior employees

All state employees are given eight extra days off per annum as from the year when they reach the age of 62 years. In addition, UiO gives employees over 62 years of age four extra days off, so that a total of 12 extra days off with pay are given each calendar year. For part-time jobs, the number of days off is calculated proportionately on the basis of the employee’s job percentage. See policy relating to senior employees

Working hours at Christmas

Where the work situation allows for this, State employees may start their work day at 10 am between Christmas and New Year.

This does not imply that everyone is entitled to a two hour reduction of their working time, but this is an opportunity to come to work later than usual. Therefore, it is not possible to accrue flexitime between 8 and 10 am.

Part-time employees with less than 5.45 working hours per day don't receive a reduction of their work time but may nevertheless opt to start their work day at 10 am.

Where the work situation does not allow for absence between 8 and 10 am, working hours are as usual.