Rest time and days off

General provisions on rest time

The rules on rest time and days off come from the Danish Act on Working Environment. They are not a direct part of the working hours agreement. However, they are of great importance to the planning of your working hours, as this planning must never be in conflict with the law.

The school’s administrator may not plan or allow anyone to perform work in violation of the rest time regulations. As an employee, you must also take measures to ensure compliance with the rest time regulations.

• Rest time: According to the law, your daily working hours must be planned so that you have a daily period of rest of at least 11 hours within a period of 24 hours. If you look back at the past 24 hours, you must have had 11 hours of rest. 
• Day off: Within every period of seven days, you must have at least one full, 24-hour day off in extension of a rest period. Thus, if you look back at the past seven days, you must have had at least one period with 35 consecutive hours of time off.
• Exceptions: The working hours agreement includes the possibility of exceptions if you are an employee at a primary and lower secondary school or an efterskole. Any exceptions must be negotiated between the union representative and school administration. 

Rules for rest time at primary and lower secondary schools

Your working hours must be planned so that you have a rest period of at least 11 hours within each period of 24 hours. 

If the rest period is shorter than 11 hours because of urgent circumstances requiring you to continue working, e.g. an accident or other serious incidents (force majeure), you must be given a compensatory rest period. This may mean that some of your working hours at a later time must be allocated to others. 

The 11-hour rest rule does not apply in connection with school camps, excursions, school trips and the like.

Exceptions for rules on rest time at primary and lower secondary schools

The daily rest period can be reduced from 11 hours to 8 hours up to 12 times per norm period/school year for the individual teacher.

The school’s administration and your union representative may reach a local agreement that expands access to using this 8-hour rest period from 12 to 20 times per school year.

Rules on rest time at an efterskole

Your working hours must be planned so that you have a rest period of at least 11 hours within each period of 24 hours. However, this rule may be waived in the event of unforeseen circumstances that require urgent efforts at the school, e.g. accidents or other serious episodes (force majeure).

When you have night duty/on-call duty at the school or in your own home, the time between 23:00 and 7:00 is considered rest time. 

If the rest time is interrupted, you subsequently have a right to at least 8 hours of uninterrupted rest time, even if you should have performed other duties during this period. The teaching and supervision time that you are prevented from performing due to this extension of rest time is still included in the calculation of your working hours.

The rest time provisions do not apply for school camps. However, immediately after returning home, you must have compensatory rest periods to the extent that you did not receive the rest periods during the school camp.