Can an employer change the hours on your timesheet?
Yes, in Sweden an employer may correct a timesheet that is wrong, and the Working Hours Act has no rule on how such corrections are made. The line is drawn at changing, without authority, a timesheet that someone else wrote or signed, which can be forgery under the Swedish Criminal Code.
This guide covers who is responsible for the timesheet, when a change is reasonable, what you can do if you disagree, and how changes can be made in the open so both sides know where they stand.
The short answer
The essentials, in four points:
- The employer may correct mistakes in a timesheet. The Working Hours Act has no rule on how that is done.
- Changing, without authority, a timesheet someone else wrote or signed can be forgery (urkundsförfalskning) under the Swedish Criminal Code, chapter 14 section 1.
- You have the right to see the employer's records of your on-call time, overtime and additional hours (Working Hours Act, section 11).
- Changes to your schedule, meaning when your ordinary hours fall, must as a rule be announced at least two weeks ahead (Working Hours Act, section 12).
Who is responsible for the timesheet?
Under section 11 of the Working Hours Act (arbetstidslagen), the employer must keep records of on-call time, overtime and additional hours. Employees have the right to see them, themselves or through someone else, and so does the union at the workplace. How the records are kept is set out in the Swedish Work Environment Authority's rules, which av.se describes (in Swedish).
For ordinary hours it varies. In some workplaces the employee writes the timesheet and the manager approves it. In others, Klokka for example, the employer logs the hours and the employee sees them. Who wrote the report matters for who may change it.
Where is the line?
The Swedish Criminal Code says that whoever, without authority, alters or completes a genuine document is convicted of forgery if the act puts its value as evidence at risk (chapter 14 section 1). An electronic document drawn up as evidence or otherwise of importance as evidence, where it can be reliably checked who issued it, also counts as such a document.
So there is a difference between correcting your own record and quietly changing a report the employee wrote or signed. The first is routine. The second should not be done without the employee knowing.
A related question is whether the employer may change your schedule. There is a clear rule here: changes to when your ordinary hours fall must be announced at least two weeks ahead, unless the nature of the business or something unforeseen gives reason for shorter notice (Working Hours Act, section 12). Check your collective agreement, it may have other rules.
When a change is reasonable
Most changes are ordinary corrections of mistakes. Some typical examples:
- The hours were logged on the wrong day.
- The same shift was logged twice.
- An agreed break had not been deducted.
- A number was wrong, for example 8 instead of 6.
When to speak up
Some situations are worth raising straight away, without drawing any conclusions about why they happened:
- Hours were removed without any explanation.
- A break was deducted that you did not get to take.
- Time is rounded down again and again.
- You only see the changes once the pay has already gone out.
If you disagree
Most of it is sorted out with a conversation. It goes more easily if you have done these things first:
- Keep your own notes of the days and times you worked.
- Ask for an explanation of the change, preferably in writing, so you share the same picture.
- Raise it as early as you can, ideally before the month is closed and the pay goes out.
- If you are a union member, contact your union. Check your collective agreement too, which may have its own rules and deadlines.
How to make changes fair for both sides
Whatever the tool, four habits keep changes from turning into disputes: correct in the open, so the employee is told what changed and why. Keep the original value and a history of who changed what and when. Let the employee object to an entry, and sort it out before the month is paid. Lock the month once you agree.
That is how Klokka works. Every entry has a history both sides can see, the employee is notified when hours are added, changed or removed, an entry that looks wrong can be flagged on the spot, and the month is locked once it is right. Read more about how to flag an entry in the app.
For employers: a routine that avoids disputes
Four things that keep a correction from becoming an issue:
- Say so when you correct something, and note why.
- Never correct a report the employee has signed without talking to them first.
- Show the employee the hours as you go, not first on the payslip.
- Close the month only once objections have been sorted out.