Caring days – understand the rules for the paid days off with your child

Are you working in the public sector? And are you the parent of a child in the age of 0-7? Then you are entitled to 2 paid days off per year together with your child. If you are working in the private sector, it will appear in your employment documents such as your collective agreement or your employment contract 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 year in which the child turns 7. Usually, a bonus – or stepparent is not entitled to care days. To be entitled to care days, it is a requirement that the child lives with you.

You are entitled to 2 care days regardless of what time of year you were employed and regardless of whether you are employed full-time, part-time or as, for example, a student assistant. One care day counts as the actual number of hours you should have been working on that day.

If you are working in the private sector, you are only entitled to caredays if this is stated in your employment contract, your collective agreement, the personnel policy at your workplace or similar documents. It also applies that if you are employed for a period of less than one month, e.g. in a shorter, temporary position, you are not entitled to care days. Likewise, you are not entitled during periods of not receiving full pay. This, for example, is relevant if you only receive a pension contribution from your employer in relation to maternity leave.

When and how can care days be held?

The care days follow the calendar year and must be held no later than December 31st. 

There is no deadline for notifying your employer of when you wish to take days off. But just like vacation days and other absences, it is a good idea to inform your employer as soon as you know about it, so that there is a greater chance for your wish to be met, and so that projects and tasks in the company can be planned accordingly.

If you wish to hold the care days as half days, this is also possible, and if your employer agrees, they may also be held in hours.

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 as held.

Can care days go lost?

As a general rule, your care days will be lost if you do not spend them within the current calendar year. However, transfer can take place in special situations. In the year the child is born or received, you can transfer the care days. In the event that you have maternity, adoption or childcare leave for an entire calendar year and therefore do not have the opportunity to take care days, you may also be allowed to transfer them. In all other cases, it will not be possible. Likewise, it is not possible to receive money for the care days you have not taken. This also counts if you resign from your position.

What should you know as an employee?

  • If you are employed under a public collective agreement or have a private employment agreement that allows it, you are entitled to 2 paid days off, the so-called care days, per year per child from and including the year of birth until the year in which the child turns 7.
  • You are entitled to care days regardless of whether you work full-time, part-time or are employed as, e.g, a student assistant.
  • The care days must be held no later than December 31st in the calendar year.
  • As a general rule, care days cannot be transferred to the next calendar year.
  • You yourself are responsible for having your care days held at times agreed with your employer.
  • There are no rules of notifying your employer on when you want to hold care days. However, you should make the request as soon as you can.

What should you know as an employer or administrator?

  • Your employees are entitled to 2 care days per year per child from and including the year of birth until the year in which the child turns 7.
  • The care days must be held no later than December 31st in the calendar year and, as a general rule, they cannot be transferred to other calendar years.
  • You should try to accommodate the employee’s request for care days.

“Leave days for care” – what’s up with those?  

Leave days for care must not be confused with care days. The days of leave for caregiving are not paid. As an employee, you are entitled to 5 self-paid leave days each calendar year, i.e. from January 1st to December 31st, to care for close relatives. The days can be held together or as individual days, and it is necessary that you inform your employer if you wish to make use of them. It also applies here that the days are lost at the end of the calendar year if you have not used them.

You can read more about parental leave at Borger.dk

Keep track of care days and other absences

With a digital time registration system such as Intempus, handling care days can be made easy for both the employee, the employer and the administrator. Just like any other absence – e.g. holiday, illness, time off, 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. In this way, the employees’ hours and absence balances are always under control.

If you are curious on how Intempus can ease the working day and make absence registration easy, safe and correct for you and your company, then book a free demo here:

You are also welcome to give us a call: +45 26390400

Sources: Borger.dk, Finansforbundet.dk

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