What rights do you have as a parent in the labour market? And what rules and laws should you be aware of? Juggling work and family life can be challenging, but knowing your rights and the laws that apply to you can make it easier to navigate. Here we outline the key points you should know as a working parent.
1. The Maternity Act
As a new parent, parental leave is one of the first things you have to deal with. It's important to understand your rights and options when it comes to parental leave. Make sure you find out how long you and your partner are entitled to parental leave and how you can divide it between you.
All parents are covered by the new parental leave law that came into force in August 2022. With the new model, the weeks are distributed differently and more equally between the mother and father/co-mother. At the same time, part of the parental leave was earmarked for both parents.
The new rules maintain 52 weeks of maternity leave in total. These are distributed as follows:
- 4 weeks of pregnancy leave for the mother before the due date (4 weeks)
- 2 weeks earmarked leave for each parent for the birth (4 weeks)
- 13 weeks of transferable leave for each parent (26 weeks)
- 9 weeks of leave for each parent earmarked as an employee (18 weeks)
If you are covered by a collective agreement, you can find out more about the scope of employer-paid parental leave here. If you are not covered by a collective agreement, you can refer to any local agreements, the employee handbook or your employment contract to find out more about your rights. In some companies, it will also be possible to negotiate for more employer-paid parental leave. You can read more about the new parental leave rules here.
2. Care days
When children get sick or need extra care, care days can be crucial. That's why it's a good idea to be familiar with the rules regarding paid days off with your child that apply to your particular workplace.
As a general rule, you are entitled to 2 paid days off with your child each year if you are a public sector employee and the parent of a child aged 0-7 years. It is also a requirement that the child lives with you.
You are entitled to care days regardless of whether you are a full-time employee, part-time employee or employed as a student assistant. One care day counts as the actual number of hours you should have been at work that day. In addition, care days must be taken no later than 31 December of the calendar year and cannot be carried over to the next calendar year.
If you are a private employee, your collective agreement, employment contract or similar will state whether you are entitled to care days.
You can read more about the right to care days here.
3. The child's first day of sick leave
You should be able to put your child first when they fall ill and it shouldn't be something that negatively affects the relationship between employer and employee. That's why there is an ”Act on employees” right to absence from work for special family-related reasons”, which guarantees all employees the right to time off for ”acute illness”. More precisely, the nature of the illness is not described, other than that it must be ”imperative, force majeure’ to stay home, but this is the right popularly known as the ’child's first sick day'.
The 1st sick day is - as the name indicates - the first day your child is sick. This means that if your child falls ill on a Sunday when you're not at work, you can't take the child's first sick day on Monday. The same goes for the second day of illness, which is the calendar day following the first day of illness, regardless of whether it's a working day or a day off. You should also be aware that only one of the parents can take the child's 1st sick day. For example, the child's father cannot take the child's 1st day off on Monday, after which the child's mother can take the child's 1st day off on Tuesday. The same applies to the 2nd day of illness. If your child falls ill again after a short time, a new period of illness starts with a new first day of illness.
There are generally no restrictions on how many sick days you can take for your child. However, the various collective agreements and local agreements will often contain guidelines. In addition, when you realise that your child is sick, you should try as far as possible to find a childcare solution for the following days so that work is disrupted as little as possible.
The rights you have in relation to your child's first day of sick leave vary from collective labour agreement to collective labour agreement. But typically, it entitles you to salary - and sometimes even to several days with pay. It may also be described in your employment contract or other local rules at your workplace.
Although the rules around the first day of sick leave are not the same for everyone, the typical prerequisites for being able to take a child's first day of sick leave are
- The child must be under 18 years old
- The child is staying with you
- It is necessary to stay at home for the sake of the child
- It is practically possible to stay home from work.
You can read more about the first day of sick leave here.
4. Leave or daily allowance for a seriously ill child
What if your child is seriously ill for a longer period of time and you as a parent want to be close to them?
In some cases, it is possible to receive unemployment benefits or full pay during the period you are not at work due to your sick child. But first of all, it's important to emphasise that the right to receive daily allowance for a seriously ill child is not a legal right for everyone. It only applies to those who are employed under a collective labour agreement. If you are not, you must instead try to reach an agreement with your employer. However, your employer will have the right to deduct your salary. If, on the other hand, you are guaranteed full pay during your leave in your collective agreement, your employer can have part of your salary reimbursed by the state.
If a parent is entitled to take time off to care for a seriously ill child, the following conditions must be met in order to receive daily allowance:
- the child is under 18 years old
- the doctor treating the child estimates that the total course of illness lasts at least 12 days - the course of illness can be hospitalisation in a hospital or similar treatment institution as well as treatment or care at home that can be equated with a hospital stay
- the parent stops working or goes on reduced hours due to the child's illness
- the parent fulfils the employment requirement for entitlement to parental benefit
Please also note that if you are a single parent, you are entitled to unemployment benefits even if your child is sick for less than 12 days.
Please also note that you can receive compensation for loss of earnings if your child has a chronic illness or disability and it is necessary to care for your child at home.
You can read more about the rules regarding sick days and apply for compensation for lost earnings due to a seriously ill child, here.
Intempus stays on top of the rules
With a digital time tracking system like Intempus, it's easy for both the employee and the employer or administrator to manage all types of absences: including maternity leave, care days, child's first sick day and longer periods of absence due to a seriously ill child. The employee simply registers the hours as ‘care days’ or ‘child's first day of illness’ 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.
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 26 390 400.
