Are you a public sector employee? And are you the parent of a child aged 0-7 years? Then you are entitled to 2 paid days off per year with your child. If you are a private employee, your collective agreement, employment contract or similar will state whether you are entitled to care days.
Who is entitled to care days?
All publicly employed fathers and mothers (including biological parents, registered co-mothers, adoptive parents, foster parents and holders of parental authority) are entitled to 2 care days per year per child from the year of birth until the child turns 7. As a rule, a stepparent or step-parent is not entitled to care days. It is also a requirement that the child lives with you.
You are entitled to two care days regardless of when in the year you were hired and whether you are employed full-time, part-time or as a student assistant. One care day counts as the actual number of hours you should have been at work that day.
If you are a private employee, you can only expect to be entitled to care days if it is stated in your employment contract, your collective agreement, your workplace's personnel policy or similar. If you are employed for a period of less than one month, for example in a short-term temporary position, you are not entitled to care days. Similarly, you are not entitled to care days during periods when you are not receiving full pay. For example, if you only receive pension contributions from your employer in connection with maternity leave.
When and how can care days be taken?
The care days follow the calendar year and must be taken no later than 31 December.
There is no deadline for notifying your employer of when you want to take your days off. However, as with holidays and other absences, it's a good idea to let your employer know as soon as you know, so there's a better chance that your request can be accommodated and your work and tasks can be planned accordingly.
If you want to organise your care days as half days, you can do so, and in agreement with your employer, it may also be possible to organise them by the hour.
If you fall ill before your care day, it can be postponed to another time, but if you fall ill on the care day itself, it will be considered cancelled.
Can care days be lost?
As a general rule, your care days will be lost if you do not take them within the current calendar year. However, transfers can be made in special situations. In the year in which the child is born or conceived, you can transfer the care days. If you are on maternity, adoption or childcare leave for an entire calendar year and are therefore unable to take care days, you may also be allowed to transfer them. In all other cases, this will not be possible, nor will it be possible to be paid for the care days you have not taken. Not even if you resign from your position.
What do you need to consider as an employee?
- If you are employed under a public collective agreement or have a private employment contract that allows it, you are entitled to 2 paid days off, so-called care days, per year per child from the year of birth until the year the child turns 7.
- You are entitled to care days regardless of whether you are a full-time employee, part-time employee or employed as a student assistant.
- The care days must be taken no later than 31 December of the calendar year.
- As a general rule, care days cannot be carried over to the next calendar year.
- You are responsible for organising your care days at times agreed with your employer.
- There are no notification rules for taking care days. However, you should request it from your employer as soon as you can.
What do you need to consider as an employer or administrator?
- Your employees are entitled to take 2 care days per year per child from the year of birth until the year the child turns 7.
- Care days must be taken no later than 31 December of the calendar year and cannot generally be carried over to other calendar years.
- You should accommodate the employee's request to take care days whenever possible.
“Carers leave days” - what's up with that?
Care leave days should not be confused with care days. Carers' leave days are not paid. As an employee, you are entitled to 5 self-paid days of leave each calendar year, i.e. from 1 January to 31 December, to care for close relatives. The days can be taken in total or as individual days, and you must inform your employer if you wish to use them. The days are also lost at the end of the calendar year if you have not used them.
You can read more about care leave at Borger.dk: https://www.borger.dk/arbejde-dagpenge-ferie/Orlov/omsorgsorlov
Keep track of care days and all other absences
With a digital time tracking system like Intempus, managing care days can be made easy and manageable for both employee and employer or administrator. Just like all other absences - such as holidays, illness, time off in lieu, maternity leave, etc. - the employee simply registers the hours as ‘care days’ directly in the app, after which the administrator can easily approve and get an overview of the reported (absence) hours in Intempus Web. This way, the employee's hours and absence balances are always in order.
Are you curious about how Intempus can ease your workday and make absence tracking easy, safe and accurate for you and your organisation? Book a free, no-obligation demo here:
You are also welcome to give us a call at: +45 26390400
Sources: Borger.dk, Finansforbundet.dk
