The Swedish Working Hours Act sets limits on how a schedule may look. The two rules that most often cause trouble are daily and weekly rest.
Daily rest
Under the Working Hours Act, employees must have at least 11 consecutive hours off per 24-hour period. An evening shift ending at 23:00 followed by a morning shift at 07:00 gives only 8 hours of rest.
Weekly rest
Employees must have at least 36 consecutive hours off in every seven-day period.
Collective agreements can change the rules
Many collective agreements have their own rest rules. Always check what applies to you.
Common pitfalls
- Last-minute shift swaps
- Closing followed by opening the next day
- Extra shifts added without reviewing the whole week
- Shifts past midnight counted on the wrong day
Let the schedule warn you
In ShiftCore, scheduling warns about short rest, overlapping shifts and unstaffed shifts before the schedule is published. That makes it easier to follow the rules even in shift-based operations like logistics and production.