The Department of Biological Sciences complies with the rules and regulations in the Act Relating to Holidays, the Basic Collective Agreements, and the UiB Employee Handbook.
As you are well aware, we are still in a period of cost reduction.
- One of the cost items that has been reviewed is the cost charged to the department for unused holiday and flextime. All unpaid holiday and flex time represents a cost in our accounts. For this reason, the department will not allow the transfer of holiday from 2024 to 2025. Previously transferred holiday must also be used in the current year.
- The transfer of holiday can only be agreed in exceptional cases, and this is limited to holidays that cannot be taken on the basis of sick leave. Such transfer is agreed directly with the head of administration, who will then approve holiday transfers in the self-service portal.
- Employees can use paid holiday in advance from the following year, corresponding to what they have earned holiday pay for this year (2,083 paid holiday days per whole working month), limited to a maximum of 10 days.
You register holiday in the Self-Service Portal (link available from UiB employee pages) or in the DFØ app. You will find Holiday under Requests for absence. Here you can add holiday by pressing the blue button at the bottom right called Create request, and you can change/dele existing holiday.
New employees
New employees who wants to have paid holiday during their first year at UiB, can take advance holiday corresponding to how many paid holiday days he/she has earned. If this person started working on 1 March, then he/she will have 10 days of paid holiday by the end of July (5 months of work x 2,083 paid holiday days = 10,4 days of paid advance holiday).
You apply for advance holiday by filling out this form : Søknad om forskuddsferie – Skjema.pdf (sharepoint.com)
We particularly advise PhD candidates to take as much advance holiday as possible, from the year that they start their position. It is often difficult for PhDs to find time for five weeks of holiday in their final year, when completing their dissertation. PhD candidates have the freedom to organize their working days according to their own wishes and needs, but this also means a responsibility to plan for holidays well in advance. Routinely making use of advance holiday can make the final year easier and help to avoid situations where PhDs must take all their holiday during the final months of their employment. It is possible to take out a maximum of 10 days of advance holiday each year.
Termination of employment
1 June to 30 September is the main holiday period according to the Act Relating to Holidays. At the Department of Biological Sciences the following routine is practice, unless you have a written agreement with the Head of Department:
- Employees who leave after 31 July, must have had at least 3 weeks of holiday
- Employees who leave after 15 October must have had at least 4 weeks of holiday
- Employees who leave in December must have taken all their holiday (usually 5 weeks)
If the date for termination of the employment is early in the year, there will be some flexibility when assessing whether the holiday can be paid out to the employee.
Rights and obligations according to the Act Relating to Holidays
Employers are obliged to ensure that employees have 25 working days’ leave in connection with holidays each holiday year. Employees, on the other hand, are obliged to take holidays each year. If the employer and employee cannot agree on when the holiday should be taken, the employer fixes the holiday dates. The employee can demand that at least three weeks of his/her holiday is to be used in the main holiday period, from 1 June to 30 September (this does not apply to employees who start after 15 August in the holiday year).
If the employee has unused holiday days left at the end of a year, the employer has not fulfilled their duty according to the Act Relating to Holidays. The Head of Department will therefore instruct employees to take and to register their holiday every year.