All employees of Umeå University are given the opportunity to do one hour of fitness training or physical exercise per week during paid working hours, workload permitting. This is called Fitness hour (Friskvårdstimme).
All employees of Umeå University are given the opportunity to do one hour of fitness training or physical exercise per week during paid working hours, workload permitting. We call it Fitness Hour or Friskvårdstimme, in Swedish.
Talk to your manager or head of department if you have any questions about how to use your fitness hour.
General rules about your Fitness Hour
- the hour can be split into a maximum of two occasions per week
- cannot be accumulated for future use
- may not help build up your flextime
- should be used at the start or finish of you work day, alternatively during your lunch break.
Working part time
Please also note that if you work part time, your Fitness Hour is reduced accordingly. For example: if you work 50%, you have a 30 minute fitness period per week.
Fitness hour and flextime
The fitness hour may not help build up your flextime. This means that if you work 41 hours in one week of which one hour is your Fitness Hour, you may only report 40 hours in your flextime reporting system.
If you have worked for 45 hours in one week including one hour of flextime, you may report a maximum of 44 hours in the flextime reporting system. This means that you Fitness Hour should be carried out within your regular work hours and can itself not be reported to exceed those hours.
No insurance coverage through work
It is important to note that the employer's work insurance does not cover your Fitness Hour. Hence, you are recommended to sign a private accident insurance that covers any potential injuries caused during your Fitness Hour. This is based on a court case tried earlier in 2019 where an employee in Jönköping did not receive remuneration from the employer's work insurance for an injury caused during the employee's Fitness Hour.
Ask your current or future insurance company for details on what activities and injuries would be covered.
Fitness motivators
Some departments also have well-trained fitness motivators who organise activities, competitions and motivates members of staff to a more active lifestyle. Talk to your manager or head of department if you would like your office to organise one.