Employment rights

Academics with an employment contract have the right to six weeks´ paid holiday a year. The stipulation of holiday must be agreed upon in advance.

An employee with a fixed monthly salary has the right to paid leave from work if he or she is unable to work due to illness. The employer can demand to see a doctor´s certificate, though usually not before a week´s period of illness.

Academics with a fixed monthly salary have the right to 2 days of paid absence from work if his or her child is taken ill. The total number of days absent from work due to children´s illness cannot exceed 10 days a year for each child.

Parents are entitled to paid leave for a total of 52 weeks after the child is born. 

Mothers have the right to paid leave 4 weeks before childbirth and 14 weeks after birth. Fathers and co-mothers have the right to paid leave for 4 weeks.

On top of that the parents are entitled to paid leave for 34 more weeks that they can divide between them as they wish.

Academic employees receive normal salary from the their employer for the entire parental leave period. 

Read more:

Parental Leave Fund

Faroese employers are obliged to insure all employees against work related injuries. The employee or his or her next of kin is entitled to compensation in case of injury, disease or death in connection with carrying out work.

Employees who have a Faroese retirement pension are normally supplementary insured against consequences of disability, serious disease and death.

Most employees in the Faroe Islands are members of a trade union. Trade unions have extensive rights in respect of negotiations with employers and their organisations.

Central wage contracts are made between trade unions and employer organisations.

Trade unions also maintain the professional interests of their members at their place of work.