Working Hours in Sweden (Arbetstidslagen): Limits and Rest

Swedish working time law sits in the Arbetstidslagen (1982:673), known as ATL. It's a short statute that's been updated several times to align with the EU Working Time Directive. The overtime caps have been stable for years; the most notable procedural change came in 2011, which removed the prior-approval requirement for additional overtime. Behind the statute, an extensive system of collective agreements (kollektivavtal) does much of the actual regulation; the ATL itself can be modified almost entirely by sector-level CBAs.

This post explains what the ATL requires for employers without a CBA, how kollektivavtal typically modify the picture, and what the Arbetsmiljöverket (Work Environment Authority) expects on inspection.

#Working Hours in Sweden: Quick Reference

#The Statute and the Collective Agreement

A critical feature of Swedish labor law: nearly every provision of the ATL can be modified by kollektivavtal. Section 3 of the ATL explicitly authorizes derogation through CBA. About 90 percent of Swedish workers are covered by a CBA, so most workers' actual rules come from the agreement, not the statute.

This means two things in practice:

1. Without a CBA, the ATL applies as written. Smaller employers without sector coverage rely on the statute.
2. With a CBA, you must read both. Many CBAs introduce different (often more worker-favorable) limits, but some adjust limits for employer flexibility.

For the rest of this post, we describe the ATL baseline. CBA variations are noted where significant.

#The Core Rules

#Section 5: The 40-Hour Week

The standard week is 40 hours, which is 8 hours a day over a five-day week. CBAs in many sectors set this lower (38 in services, 36 in some manufacturing). The 40-hour figure is the statutory cap on regular working time before overtime applies.

#Section 8: Overtime (200 Hours a Year)

Overtime (övertid) is allowed under several categories:

• Allmän övertid (general overtime): up to 48 hours per 4 weeks or 50 hours per calendar month, and at most 200 hours per worker per year. Allowed when there is a special need.
• Extra övertid (additional): up to 150 more hours per year on top of general overtime, when there are special reasons and the situation could not be solved in another reasonable way (Section 8a). No permission from or notification to the labor inspectorate is needed, but general and extra overtime together may not exceed 48 hours per 4 weeks or 50 hours per calendar month.
• Mertid (additional time for part-timers): up to 200 hours per year for workers contracted below the standard week.

The 2011 amendment (Lag 2011:740, effective 1 August 2011) relaxed the process for extra övertid: previously the inspectorate had to grant a dispensation in advance. That requirement was abolished and no notification duty replaced it. Instead, a safety representative (skyddsombud) who thinks the rules are not being followed can ask the employer to act, and then ask the inspectorate to consider an order or prohibition (Section 19a).

#Section 10b: 48 Hours a Week on Average

48 hours per week, averaged over four months. This is the EU Working Time Directive minimum.

#Section 13: 11 Hours of Daily Rest

11 consecutive hours per 24-hour period.

#Section 14: 36 Hours of Weekly Rest

36 consecutive hours per 7-day period, preferably including weekend.

#Section 15: Breaks

The ATL requires breaks to be scheduled so that no one works more than five hours in a row, and their number, length and timing must be "adequate". It does not specify duration. CBAs invariably do. Typical practice:

• 30-minute lunch break in any working day exceeding 5 hours
• Two 15-minute paid "fika" breaks (the famous Swedish coffee break) in a standard 8-hour day

#Annual Leave (Semesterlagen)

The 25-working-day statutory minimum comes from the Semesterlagen (1977:480), not the ATL. Key features:

• 25 working days per leave year (1 April to 31 March)
• Continuous 4-week vacation right between June and August
• Holiday pay (semesterlön): employees with a fixed weekly or monthly salary usually keep their current salary plus a holiday supplement (same-salary rule, section 16a); others get 12 percent of the pay earned in the previous year (percentage rule, section 16b)
• Unused leave can be saved (with a 5-year limit) under the sparad semester mechanism

Many CBAs grant additional days for tenure or age.

#Night Work

The ATL section 13a applies to night workers, defined as someone normally working at least 3 hours between 22:00 and 06:00:

• Average 8 hours per 24-hour period over a reference period of at most 4 months
• Medical checks arranged by the employer before night work starts, then at least every 6 years (every 3 years from age 50), under AFS 2023:15

#Record-Keeping: What the ATL Says

ATL Section 11 requires employers to keep records of on-call time (jourtid), overtime and mertid for each worker. It does not require a record of all daily working time. The ATL itself sets no retention period, but the Arbetsmiljöverket's provisions require the records to be kept at the workplace for the calendar year they cover and the two following calendar years.

The Arbetsmiljöverket's new provisions, effective 1 January 2025 (a restructuring of its regulatory framework rather than a statutory ATL change), moved these rules from AFS 1982:17 into chapter 9 of AFS 2023:2 without widening them. The records must keep on-call time, general overtime, extra overtime, general mertid and emergency overtime apart, and the employer chooses the document or system used. In practice, many employers track these data points:

• Daily start and end of working time
• Breaks taken
• Total daily hours
• Overtime worked (with category: general, additional, mertid)

Records must be available on request to:

• The worker concerned
• The worker's trade union representative
• The Arbetsmiljöverket labor inspector

#CCOO and Sweden

Sweden has not legislated in response to CCOO. The 2025 provisions carried the old record rules over unchanged, so the duty still covers only on-call time, overtime and mertid. As of October 2026 we found no adopted law, bill or government inquiry (SOU) that would require a daily record of all working time.

Swedish legal commentators describe Sweden as the only Nordic country without a statutory duty to record daily working time.

#The Arbetsmiljöverket

Swedish work environment law (Arbetsmiljölagen, 1977:1160) applies alongside the ATL. The Arbetsmiljöverket (Work Environment Authority) enforces both.

Inspections focus on:

• Records of overtime, especially extra övertid
• Night worker health assessments
• Daily and weekly rest violations
• Telework risk assessments

Breaching the limits on regular hours, on-call time, overtime, mertid or daily and weekly rest (Sections 5 to 10a, 13 and 14) without CBA support triggers a sanction fee (sanktionsavgift) of 1 percent of the price base amount for each unlawful hour and each worker (SEK 592 in 2026), even without intent or negligence. Breaching the 48-hour average, the break rules or the record-keeping duty can be punished with fines. The inspectorate can also issue orders or prohibitions, with a conditional fine (vitesföreläggande) if it chooses; breaching an order that carries no conditional fine can lead to fines or up to one year in prison.

#Practical Compliance Checklist

1. Establish whether a CBA applies. Sector or company-level. If yes, read it alongside the ATL.
2. Record on-call time, overtime and mertid for every worker. That is the legal minimum (ATL Section 11, AFS 2023:2). Tracking daily start, end and breaks as well makes the rest rules easier to check.
3. Monitor the overtime caps. 200 hours general, 150 additional, 200 for part-time mertid. Annual totals.
4. Check the conditions before using extra övertid. Since 2011 neither permission from nor notification to the labor inspectorate is required, but there must be special reasons and no other reasonable solution, and the hours must be recorded separately from general overtime.
5. Honor the 36-hour weekly rest. Often the most-breached rule for shift work.
6. Keep records for the calendar year plus the two following years. AFS 2023:2 requires them to be kept at the workplace; check your CBA for anything stricter.

#Common Questions

Can a CBA reduce statutory protection? The ATL Section 3 allows derogation in either direction, but for the 48-hour average, daily and weekly rest, night work and breaks a CBA may not go below the EU Working Time Directive. In practice, CBAs reduce protection rarely; when they do, they trade lower protection for higher pay or other compensation.

Are senior managers exempt? ATL Section 2 exempts workers in senior management or a comparable position, and workers whose tasks mean they are trusted to plan their own working time.

Does the law apply to fixed-term workers? Yes. Fixed-term workers have the same protections as permanent workers for working time purposes.

What about telework? There was no 2021 ATL amendment on telework. Remote work is covered like other work, except that Section 2 excludes work done under conditions where it cannot be the employer's task to supervise how the work is arranged. Where the ATL applies, recording duties are the same.

Are bank holidays separate from the 25 days? Yes. Sweden has 13 public holidays, separate from annual leave. Midsummer Eve and Christmas Eve are not public holidays, but they are de facto days off, often under CBAs, and the Semesterlagen does not count them as leave days (section 3a).

#Summary

• The Arbetstidslagen (ATL) sets a 40-hour week, with the 48-hour cap averaged over 4 months
• Overtime: 200h general, 150h additional, 200h mertid for part-timers
• Daily rest 11h, weekly rest 36h
• 25 working days of statutory leave, paid under the same-salary rule or the 12 percent rule
• Records cover on-call time, overtime and mertid, kept for the calendar year plus 2 years; there is still no general duty to record daily working time
• CBAs cover 90 percent of workers and often modify the statutory baseline

#Sources

• Arbetstidslagen (1982:673) on riksdagen.se
• Semesterlagen (1977:480)
• Arbetsmiljöverket on working time
• AFS 2023:2, chapter 9: records of on-call time, overtime and mertid (in force 1 January 2025)
• AFS 2023:15: medical checks, including night work

#Where to Go Next

• The EU Working Time Directive explained for the framework the ATL implements
• The ECJ CCOO ruling: why time tracking is mandatory for the ruling Sweden has not yet implemented in its own law
• Norway's Arbeidsmiljøloven: working time rules for the closest Nordic comparison