Parental leave: accompanying growing up

Parental leave can be taken by you as mother and father. The employer cannot refuse parental leave, not even for urgent operational reasons. Parental leave means: you do not have to work, but you are also not paid. Therefore, parental leave is only available to employees.

Self-employed people are not dependent on parental leave because they can decide for themselves about their professional commitment. As financial compensation, you can (also as self-employed) apply for parental allowance. However, unlike parental leave, this does not cover the entire first 3 years of your child's life.

Civil servants, soldiers and judges can also be entitled to parental leave. However, some special regulations apply to them.

If you have any questions, please contact the personnel department responsible for you at your authority.

• Parental leave entitlement exists until the child reaches the age of 3.
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• Parental leave does not have to be used up by the 3rd birthday.
• Each parent can claim up to 36 months of parental leave.
• The maternity leave period of 8 weeks is counted towards parental leave.

• It is possible to divide the parental leave in up to 3 periods.
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• Up to 24 of the 36 months parental leave can be taken between the 3rd and 8th birthday of the child.
• The parental leave after the 3rd birthday, you must apply 13 weeks before the start.
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• Parents must apply for parental leave in writing to the employer.
• An application by mail or verbally is not sufficient.
• The application must be at least 7 weeks before the start of parental leave. Informal sample applications for printing can be found in the download.

• During parental leave, part-time work is possible.
• The part-time work may be 15 to 32 hours per week.
• You must apply for part-time work for at least 2 months.
• Your employment relationship must have already existed for at least 6 months.
• An entitlement exists in companies with more than 15 employees.
• You must apply for part-time work at least 7 weeks before it begins; if you want to work part-time after the 3rd birthday of your child on parental leave, a deadline of 13 weeks applies.
• The company may reject the application only for urgent operational reasons.
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• If the part-time phase is over, the original scope of hours applies.

During parental leave you are particularly protected, termination by the employer is only possible in exceptional cases. The protection against dismissal begins with the registration of parental leave, but not earlier than one week before the start of the registration period. Therefore, it is advisable to register parental leave only from this point in time.

After the expiration of the parental leave, the protection against dismissal ends. Provided that you divide your parental leave into several sections, you enjoy protection against dismissal during the individual sections, but not in between.