Scope of employment, working hours and days

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Working hours and days

The amount of weekly hours you are formally employed with the UT has been established in your employment contract. We call this the formal working hours. The formal working hours for full-time employment are 38 hours a week.

The days and times that you will be working are agreed upon with your manager. These agreements are recorded in myHR/AFAS under 'Change Timetable / working pattern'. The working hours recorded in this application, form the basis for the various digital registration systems, such as leave registration, absence registration and time registration. In order for these systems to work correctly, it is paramount that the data recorded in myHR/AFAS be current.

  • Length of work week

    In the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities, the formal working hours for full-time employment have been set at 38 hours a week. However, at UT the standard working week is 40 hours: 5 days of 8 hours. Because of this, you will work 2 extra hours every week. You will be compensated for these extra hours with 96 compensation hours per year.

    As part of the flexible work hours (see paragraph above), you can choose between 38 or 36 work hours per week for full-time employment as well. For more information see the paragraph flexible work hours below. 

    PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT

    The formal working hours for part-time employment are less than 38 hours a week. At UT, part-time employment is always contracted for whole hours. Flexible work hours are not applicable: if you work part-time, your actual working hours equal your formal working hours.

    ADJUSTMENT OF WORKING HOURS

    After you have been employed by the UT for at least 26 weeks, you can submit a request for adjustment (decrease or increase) of your formal working hours. This request must comply with the Wet flexibel werken (flexible working Act). The faculty or department will honour the request unless important business or service interests stand in the way of this.

  • Flexible work hours

    If you have full-time employment, you can make use of flexible work hours. This option is not available to staff with part-time employment.

    For full-time employment, the standard working week is 40 hours: 5 days of 8 hours. However, because the formal working hours are only 38 hours a week, you will actually work 2 extra hours per week. To compensate for these extra hours, you will receive 96 compensation hours per year. If you want to actively deploy these 96 hours, you can make this known through the Optional model for employment conditions (KAT). There are two possibilities to choose from:

    1. A working week of 38 hours. This will of course mean that you do not receive the extra 96 compensation hours. You will make arrangements about the division of the flexible work hours with your manager. For example, you could arrange to work until 15:15 instead of 17:15 every Friday.
    2. A working week of 36 hours. In that case, you will not receive the extra 96 compensation hours and you will turn in an additional 96 holiday hours on a yearly basis. You will make arrangements about the division of the flexible work hours with your manager. For example, you could arrange that every Friday you will work until 12:30 instead of 17:15. 
      Please note: It is not possible to work 4 days of 9 hours, this modality is not allowed within the UT. The maximum working hours per working day amount to 8 hours.

    If you have used the Optional model for employment conditions to select a working week of 38 or 36 hours, this choice is valid for one year. Every calendar year, at the beginning of the year, you are required to re-establish this choice in the Optional Model.

  • Public holidays and compulsory leave days

    The UT closes for public holidays and compulsory leave days and you normally will not be required to work on those days.
    It is possible that you may have to work on a public holiday or during a collective closure, for the UT's benefit. In that case you will receive a leave day at a different time to compensate for the hours worked. In addition, you may be entitled to a bonus for working non-standard hours (TOD).

    PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

    Public holidays include: New Year's Day, Good Friday*), Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Christmas and Boxing Day, King's Day and Liberation Day. These public holidays will not be detracted from your leave hours.

    • *) Conditions for exchanging Good Friday

      From 2024, it is possible to exchange Good Friday for another religious, national, regional or local holiday or day of remembrance (e.g. Keti Koti, Labour Day or Remembrance of the Dead).

      The following conditions apply to exchanging Good Friday:

      • It is only possible to exchange Good Friday if, according to your regular work pattern, you would have had to work on that Friday.
      • The UT is closed on Good Friday. Exchange is therefore only possible if you can work from home on Good Friday. If your job does not permit working from home, you cannot make use of this exchange option.
      • The request to exchange Good Friday must be made no later than 4 weeks in advance by e-mail to your superior:
        • no later than 4 weeks before Good Friday if the day you exchange with is after Good Friday;
        • no later than 4 weeks before the day you want to exchange, if it is before Good Friday.

      If you make the request too late, your request may be rejected. The manager will respond to your request within two weeks. If you have no response, your request will be considered granted.

      • You cannot retroactively exchange a previously used holiday for Good Friday.
      • You can only exchange Good Friday for another day in the same calendar year.
      • Exchanging Good Friday does not have to be reported in MyHR. The agreement on paper (in the mail) is sufficient.
      • If you work on Good Friday because of the exchange with another public holiday or day of remembrance, no allowance for unusual working hours (Chapter 3, section 3 CLA Dutch Universities) is granted.

    COMPULSORY LEAVE DAYS

    Every year the Executive Board determines a maximum of 7 days on which the University will collectively close (bridging days). Usually, these are the Friday after Ascension and the days between Christmas and the turn of the year. During a collective closure you are required to take up leave. The number of hours that you would have normally worked, according to your employment pattern on those days, will be automatically subtracted from your total leave hours. 

    Collective closure (Bridging Days) 2023 – 2025

    Collective closure 2023

    • Friday 19 May (Ascension Day falls on Thursday 18 May)
    • Wednesday 27 December
    • Thursday 28 December 
    • Friday 29 December 

    Collective closure 2024

    • Friday, 10 May 2024 (Ascension Day is Thursday, 9 May)
    • Friday, 27 December 2024
    • Monday, 30 December 2024
    • Tuesday, 31 December 2024

    Collective closure 2025

    • Friday, 30 May 2025 (Ascension Day is Thursday, 29 May)
    • Monday, 29 December 2025
    • Tuesday, 30 December 2025
    • Wednesday, 31 December 2025
        - Since 2 January 2026 is a Friday, this day has also been appointed as a bridging day.
  • Working hours

    Standard working hours

    The standard daily working hours at the UT are Monday to Friday from 8:30 until 12:30 and from 13:15 until 17:15. You can agree upon different working hours in consultation with your manager. You have to be present between 9:00 and 12:00 and 14:00 and 16:00 (time periods), and your working hours should fall between 7:30 and 18:00. You will also be required to take a thirty-minute break after 5.5 hours of work. It is possible to split this compulsory break into two breaks of fifteen minutes each. The compulsory break does not count towards the working hours.

    DIFFERENT WORKING HOURS

    The faculty or unit can determine different working hours if the position requires it. This applies, for example, to staff working in catering and security.

    If you are working different working hours and you fall in a salary scale lower than scale 11, you might be entitled to a bonus for working non-standard hours (TOD).

Contact

Please contact HR Services for any further questions. Tel 053 489 8011.

For ideas, comments or changes to this page, please email webteam-hr@utwente.nl

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