Pay or time off? Unique scheme gives employees freedom of choice
The free-choice bank, which is part of several of Finansforbundet's collective agreements, gives employees considerable freedom to choose what suits them best.
Taking your personal circumstances into account
Employees subject to one of Finansforbundet's collective agreements with the right to a free-choice bank may, for example, deposit additional hours, the sixth week of holiday and care days. The account balance is typically allowed to constitute up to 400 hours.
Employees are free to decide whether to have the hours paid out or taken as time off in lieu, or perhaps a combination of time off and payment.
"Several of Finansforbundet's collective agreements allow employees to decide whether the sixth week of holiday and their care days should be paid out or taken as time off in lieu. That offers additional flexibility, which takes the employees' personal circumstances and financial wishes versus time off into account," says Rasmus Nørgaard Høgh.
He points out the difference between those who are at the beginning of their working lives and prefer cash to time off and those who have been working for years and appreciate time off more than money.
From time bank to free-choice bank
Following the most recent collective bargaining, the free-choice bank replaced the former time bank and, at the same time, the scheme became even more flexible implying that the accumulated time off may, for example, also be spent on a partner's fertility treatment or during child illness exceeding five days.
"This provides employees with even better opportunities for a flexible organisation of their working lives," Rasmus Nørgaard Høgh explains.
Free-choice bank
- Typically has a maximum of 400 hours
- You may have a deficit (time off on loan) of up to 37 hours
- Employees may take up to three consecutive days off no later than one month, and five consecutive days off no later than two months, after having requested to do so.
- If the employee's request for time off in lieu is linked to, for example, the right under a collective agreement to take two days off on days of special importance to the employee, time off for a partner's fertility treatment or time off due to force majeure, shorter notices apply, which are stated in the collective agreement.
- Companies may pay out hours exceeding 320 once a year on 1 May, unless otherwise agreed between the company and the employee.
- Employees with a deficit of hours may, subject to agreement, pay for such hours once a year.