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Rules concerning care days

If you have the right to care days, how many days are you entitled to and what should you do if you become ill on such a day? Find the answers to your questions on care days or get specialised legal advice from one of our lawyers.

You have the right to care days if you are covered by the collective agreement between Finansforbundet (Financial Services Union Denmark) and Finanssektorens Arbejdsgiverforening (Danish Employers’ Association for the Financial Sector) and receive full salary from your employer. This means that you also have the right to care days if you are ill and receive salary during illness or if you are on paid leave, e.g. pregnancy, parental or adoption leave or leave for taking care of terminally ill persons.

However, you do not have a right to care days: 

  • If you have been employed for less than one month
  • During periods where you do not receive salary or, for example, when your employer only pays pension contribution. For example, this is the case if, in connection with parental leave, you are only paid pension contribution and not a salary.

If you are an insurance agent and are employed pursuant to the Insurance Agent collective agreement, you have the right to five days of care days per year. You pay for the days yourself, unless otherwise agreed locally. However, it is a prerequisite that a local agreement has been reached concerning how you should pay for the days of care days. 

Care days - summarized

There are a lot of rules concerning care days and it can be difficult keeping ahead of them all. When do you get personal days and what happens to them when you resign from your workplace or change jobs? Get a quick answer of the most common questions asked about care days or read more of the details below.

How many care days am I entitled to?

As a general rule, you are entitled to a maximum of five care days per year. Your five care days will be credited to your time bank, which is typically done on January 1st of each year. Some companies have chosen to follow the holiday year and therefore put the care days in the time bank on September 1st. This means that you are allocated hours equal to your annual standard divided by 52 weeks (your employment rate).

If you have an annual standard of:

  • 1924, 37 hours are allocated in the time bank
  • 1872, 36 hours in the time bank
  • 1560, 30 hours in the time bank

How and when can you use your care days?

As a general rule, you must use the care days as whole days, unless a local agreement is in place at your company that allows you take the leave in half-days or by the hour.

There is no agreement in place as to the notice you must provide prior to using your care days. However, the general rule is that you must enter into an agreement and take into consideration the operation of the workplace. This could mean that your employer may deny your request if it will have a major impact on the company.

If you disagree on when to take care days, you can contact your professional representative.

Once care days has been agreed, is it possible to change it?

Neither you nor your employer can unilaterally change when care days is taken once an agreement has been reached. Such a change requires that you agree. Only in very special cases where there is a situation similar to force majeure can your employer unilaterally make such a change.

What do I do if I fall ill before my care days?

You must postpone your care days if you fall ill.

If you have agreed to take several consecutive days of care days, you can only postpone the days when you are ill. The days when you are not ill will be considered used unless you agree with your employer that they can be postponed.

What happens if you do not use your care days?

If you do not use your days of care days, they will be moved to the time bank. You can then use the care days in the same way as you use other hours in your time bank, i.e. you can take time off in lieu or have them paid out.

What happens if you switch to part-time employment during the year?

There is a difference if your part-time work spans five days a week or if it involves fewer days:

  • For example, if you go from full-time to part-time work on 30 June, working five days a week, and have already taken four days of care days, you still have the right to the fifth day in the last part of the calendar year. No conversion to hours is necessary. However, if you took a day of care days before 30 June, you have the right to four days in the remainder of the calendar year.
  • If, on 30 June, you switch from full-time to a part-time position where you work every second day, and if you already used three days of care days, you will have two days left. However, since you are only working every other day, the conversion rules mean that you can only use one day of care days in the rest of the calendar year.
What happens if I resign or am dismissed?

If you are dismissed or resign, the unused days of care days are converted to hours and added to your time bank.

However, your company may have entered into a local agreement that prevents the care days from being transferred to the time bank. This means that your employer may demand that you either use the care days in a release period or that you can get it proportionately paid out when you resign. The number of days of care days are calculated as follows:

  • Before 31 March: one day of care days
  • before 30 June: Two days of care days
  • before 30 September: Three days of care days
  • latest 30 November: Four days of care days
  • after 30 November: Five days of care days

Do you receive new care days when you switch employer?

You can at most be awarded five days of care days per calendar/holiday year, even if you move to a different company within FA’s membership area.

Would you like to learn more about care days?

You can read more about the rules for care days in the guide Guidelines on care days (in Danish)

Contact Legal Department

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You can also write to raadgivning@finansforbundet.dk