Can an employee swap sick days back when they fall ill during annual leave?

Yes. Under 15 § of the Annual Leave Act, days during a period of leave on which illness or an occupational injury would have prevented the employee from working are not counted as annual leave days, provided the employee requests it without delay. The right applies from the first sick day: there is no minimum number of leave days that has to be used up before the swap becomes available, which is a common and costly misreading. The swapped days return to the employee's leave balance and can be taken later. Two conditions do the work. The request has to come without delay, meaning as soon as possible after falling ill rather than once the holiday has ended, and the illness has to be one that would have prevented work. In practice that puts weight on the sick-reporting routine functioning outside office hours and while the employee is away.

Does sick absence still generate holiday pay for the following year?

Up to 180 days per earning year, under the first paragraph of 17 § of the Annual Leave Act, which makes sick absence semesterlönegrundande, holiday-pay generating, within that cap. Sick absence during leave that has been swapped under 15 § counts toward the same 180 days as ordinary sick absence in that earning year, so a long illness covering planned holiday reaches the cap faster than the two periods counted separately would suggest. Two provisions change the picture. Absence caused by an occupational injury generates entitlement without the 180-day limit, so a spell following a workplace accident should not be charged against the same cap. And the second paragraph of 17 § is a cut-off rather than an extension: entitlement stops entirely once the employee has been wholly or partly absent for a whole earning year with no gap longer than fourteen consecutive days.

Sick leave during annual leave in Sweden: what employers should know

Q: Is holiday pay or sick pay paid for a swapped day?

Sick pay. Once a day stops counting as an annual leave day under 15 § of the Annual Leave Act, there is no holiday pay left to pay for it, so the two are never paid in parallel for the same day. Payment shifts to the Sick Pay Act's rules under 6 §: eighty percent of employment benefits, with a karensavdrag of twenty percent of an average week's sick pay, exactly as in ordinary sick absence. The employee being formally on leave when the illness started changes none of that. The karensavdrag still follows the ordinary rules too: once per sick period, capped at ten within twelve months, so an employee who has already had a sick period recently may face no deduction at all. The practical effect is that a swapped day pays less than the leave day it replaced, which is worth saying out loud when the swap is agreed.

Q: How is the remaining leave scheduled after a swap?

In one block, unless the employee agrees otherwise. That rule sits in 15 § of the Annual Leave Act alongside the swap right itself, and it is the part employers forget most often. Returning four days to someone's balance and then distributing them through the autumn as convenient filler is not a decision the employer makes alone: the default is a single continuous period, and anything else needs the employee's agreement. The reasoning matches the Act's general approach to leave, which treats a continuous break as the point of the entitlement rather than an accumulation of individual days off. Practically this means the swap conversation has two halves. First the days come back to the balance, and then, separately, when they will be taken, with the block rule as the starting position rather than something the employee has to argue for.

An employee is three days into a two-week holiday when they come down with something. Do those days count as leave?

Not if they ask in time. Swedish law lets them swap the sick days back out of their leave balance from the first sick day, and the swap changes three things at once, of which employers routinely do only one.

TL;DR

Employees can swap sick days out of annual leave from the first sick day, as long as they request it without delay.
A swapped day pays sick pay, not holiday pay: 80 percent of employment benefits, minus the ordinary deduction.
The remaining leave days return to the balance and must be scheduled in one block, unless the employee agrees otherwise.
Sick absence, including swapped days, builds next year’s leave for up to 180 days per earning year, with no cap for occupational injury.

Can an employee swap sick days back into annual leave?

Yes. Days during a period of leave on which illness or an occupational injury would have prevented the employee from working are not counted as annual leave days. The condition: the employee must request this without delay (15 § of the Annual Leave Act).

The right applies from the first sick day. There is no minimum number of leave days that must be used up first: a misreading that quietly costs employees days every summer.

And the request must come without delay: as soon as possible after falling ill, not once the holiday has finished. Ask too late and the days stay ordinary leave days despite the illness.

That second condition puts weight somewhere unexpected: on your sick-reporting routine working outside office hours, and working while someone is abroad. If reporting sick requires reaching a named manager on a weekday, utan dröjsmål becomes hard to satisfy through no fault of the employee.

Next: check whether an employee on holiday in another time zone can report sick to you today. If the answer needs a caveat, that is a compliance gap, not a convenience one.

What do you actually do when someone falls ill on leave?

You do three things, in order, and all three have to happen.

The employee reports sick, without delay — exactly as for ordinary sick absence.
The days are reclassified from annual leave days to sick days. Holiday pay is replaced by sick pay, including the deduction (karensavdrag).
The same number of leave days returns to the balance, to be taken later and scheduled in one block unless the employee agrees otherwise.

The recurring administrative failure is doing step 2 and stopping. The pay is adjusted, the balance is not, and the employee loses the days despite holding a statutory right to keep them. Treat the pay change and the balance change as one event rather than two tasks that can drift apart.

Next: if these are two separate processes in your system today, the second one is the one that gets skipped.

Is holiday pay or sick pay paid for a swapped day?

Sick pay, not holiday pay. Never both.

That follows directly from 15 §: once a day no longer counts as an annual leave day, there is no holiday pay left to pay for it. Payment moves to the Sick Pay Act’s rules on sick pay (6 §): 80 percent of employment benefits, with a deduction of 20 percent of an average week’s sick pay. That applies regardless of the employee having been formally on leave when they fell ill.

The ordinary sick-pay rules travel with it, including the once-per-period deduction and the ten-in-twelve-months cap. The full mechanics are in Sick pay in Sweden.

Worth saying plainly when the swap is agreed: a swapped day pays less than the leave day it replaces. The employee gets the day back, not the money for it, and that surprises people who expected the swap to be neutral.

Next: confirm your payroll system applies the deduction on swapped days the same way it does for ordinary sick leave.

How is the remaining leave scheduled after a swap?

15 § carries a scheduling rule that gets forgotten more than any other part of it: once the swap is made, the remaining annual leave days must be scheduled in one block, unless the employee agrees otherwise.

So returning four days to someone’s balance and spreading them through the autumn as convenient filler is not yours to decide alone. A single continuous period is the default; anything else needs agreement.

Next: when you confirm a swap, agree the replacement dates in the same conversation. It is the moment the block rule is easiest to satisfy.

Does the sick absence still build next year’s leave?

Yes, up to a cap, and the cap is where a long illness starts to bite.

Sick absence generates holiday pay (semesterlönegrundande) for up to 180 days per earning year under the first paragraph of 17 §. Sick absence during leave that was swapped under 15 § is counted together with other sick absence in the same earning year, so the two do not get separate allowances.

Occupational injury has no cap. Absence caused by one generates leave entitlement without the 180-day limit, so a spell following a workplace accident should not be charged against the same allowance as ordinary illness.

And the second paragraph of 17 § is a cut-off, not an extension. Entitlement stops entirely once the employee has been wholly or partly absent for an entire earning year with no gap in the absence longer than fourteen consecutive days. A sick period running across the 31 March–1 April boundary does not automatically unlock a fresh 180 days. It is the most common misreading of the provision, and the one that causes an unpleasant conversation at the end of a long absence.

Next: flag any sick period crossing 31 March so payroll checks the 180-day count on both sides of the cutover.

How do the Annual Leave Act and the Sick Pay Act work together?

Together, they cover the whole swap: one sets the leave-side rule, the other sets the pay.

Question	Rule	Provision
Does illness during leave count as an annual leave day?	No, if requested without delay	15 § Annual Leave Act
From which sick day does the swap apply?	The first — no minimum leave days used up first	15 §
What replaces holiday pay for a swapped day?	Sick pay, 80% of employment benefits	6 § Sick Pay Act
Is a sick pay deduction made on swapped days?	Yes, on the ordinary rules — 20% of an average week’s sick pay	6 § Sick Pay Act
How is the remaining leave scheduled?	In one block, unless the employee agrees otherwise	15 §
How long is sick absence holiday-pay generating?	180 days per earning year; occupational injury is uncapped	17 § 1st para
When does absence stop generating entitlement?	After a whole earning year of absence with no gap over 14 days	17 § 2nd para

Next: use this table as the quick-reference check before approving any swap request.

How does Taito.ai help with this?

Taito.ai sets up the sick-during-leave swap in your leave policy, so a reported sick day during annual leave moves the pay and returns the day to the balance automatically, and keeps it maintained as the rules change.

Sources

Riksdagen publishes the consolidated Swedish text of these Acts. There is no citable official English translation, so every rule here is paraphrased rather than quoted. Riksdagen’s SFS pages carry no paragraph-level anchors, so links point at the whole Act and the paragraph number travels in the link text.

Disclaimer

Taito.ai does not provide legal, tax or accounting advice. This article is general information about the law as it stood on the date above, not advice on your situation, and it is not a substitute for it. Rates and thresholds change. Check with a qualified adviser before acting on anything here.

People directory

Time‑off and attendance

Docs and eSign

Performance

People agents

MCP use cases

For founders

For people leads

For operators