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Changes to special leave

Newsflash
Collective employment relations

The Royal Decree of 5 May 2019 amending various provisions concerning special leave enters into force on 1 June 2019. It introduces more flexibility for parental leave, leave for palliative care and leave for medical assistance to a seriously sick member of the household or family.

This Royal Decree leaves in place the existing arrangements concerning parental leave, leave for palliative care or leave for medical assistance to a seriously sick member of the household or family. What does change is the amount of flexibility for requests from 1 June 2019 onwards, namely:

Parental leave

  • possibility to reduce the work performance by one tenth, on condition of full-time employment (maximum duration of the suspension: 40 months, subject to the employer’s agreement, to be split into periods of ten months or a multiple thereof);

  • possibility to split the right to full-time parental leave per week, subject to the employer’s agreement. Each request can relate to several non-continuous periods of the week (or a multiple thereof), provided that the requested weeks are spread over a period of maximum three months;

  • possibility to split the right to part-time parental leave per month, subject to the employer’s agreement.

The employer may refuse these various arrangements, within one month of the request, but cannot postpone the exercise of these rights.

Leave for medical assistance to a seriously sick member of the household or family

Possibility to reduce the minimum suspension period to one, two or three weeks, subject to the employer’s agreement. If, as a result, the remaining part of the maximum suspension period is less than one month, the employee may take the remainder without the employer’s agreement. The employer may refuse the exercise of this right within two working days following the receipt of the request.

Leave for palliative care

An employee may now submit a maximum of three (previously, two) certificates for leave for palliative care for the same person.

> Key message

It is important to pay particular attention to these new arrangements for each request for one of these forms of special leave as of 1 June 2019.