New Paid Parental Leave Act as of August 2, 2022

Parental leave: a statutory regulation designed to give parents the opportunity to temporarily work less to get used to the new situation. Your employees are also entitled to parental leave when they have had a child.

In this article, you will read about what parental leave entails, whether your employee is entitled to it and what changes will be made to parental leave. It is expected that many parents will make use of the new regulation. It is therefore important that you, as an employer, are prepared for this.

The rules before August 2, 2022

The current rule regarding parental leave is as follows: Dutch employees who are parents or caregivers are entitled to 26 weeks of parental leave until the child’s 8th birthday. This leave is unpaid, unless otherwise agreed upon in the terms of employment, or CAO. The number of hours of parental leave depends on the number of hours your employee works per week. This is based on the number of working hours per week as agreed in the employment contract.

Calculation: The parental leave amounts to 26 x the number of hours that your employee works. Does the employee work 32 hours? Then he/she is entitled to 26 x 32 hours of parental leave.

The employee decides how they take and distribute the parental leave. The leave does not have to be taken in one go. A number of hours per day spread over several weeks and months is possible.

Is my employee entitled to parental leave?

Your employee is entitled to parental leave if he/she

• is the legal parent of the biological, adoptive, foster or stepchild;
• Is not the legal parent of the child, but is caring for, and raising the child (living at the same address).

The new rules on paid parental leave after 2 August 2022

Due to a European directive, parental leave will soon change. As of August 2022, both parents will be entitled to 70% wage payment from the UWV for the first 9 weeks of parental leave. Also for paid leave, the rule is: the parent can decide how they take this leave.

• Paid parental leave can only be taken during the child’s first year of life. If he/she does not use this, these weeks can be used unpaid until the child is 8 years old;
• The remaining 17 weeks of parental leave are unpaid;
• It is possible that your employer supplements the paid parental leave allowance, check this in the collective agreement and employment contract.

As an employer, can you refuse a request from an employee to take (paid) parental leave?

No, you cannot just do that. You cannot refuse the request itself, but you can refuse the distribution of the working hours/leave hours if the leave would cause serious problems for the company (this is called “important company or service interest”). This could include schedule problems or production or safety problems. In that case, you must consult with the employee about a different distribution of the leave hours. Please note that you can do this up to four weeks prior to the parental leave starting date.

What leave arrangements are there in total after 2 August 2022?

We’ve listed them for you:

• Maternity leave/childbirth leave
  During your pregnancy you are entitled to 6 weeks of maternity leave and at least 10 weeks of childbirth leave, so a total of 16 weeks at 100% salary for the mother of the child.
• Calamity leave
  Day of delivery, at 100% payout salary for the partner/other parent of the child.
• Birth leave
  One time the number of working hours per week at 100% pay for the partner/other parent of the child.
• Additional birth leave
  Up to a maximum of 5 weeks during which the partner/other parent of the child receives 70% of their salary. The UWV pays these weeks of leave. The employee must take these weeks of leave within 6 months after the birth of the child.
• Parental leave
  26 (working) weeks of which 9 weeks at 70% of the salary and 17 weeks unpaid.

TOSS makes it easy for you
Are you outsourcing your legal employment to TOSS by means of payrolling or temporary staffing? If so, we will take care of matters such as payroll administration, drawing up employment contracts and the payment of wages. We have knowledge of (all) collective labor agreements, HR and legislation and regulations. We also advise you on matters such as notice periods.

Would you like to know whether it is interesting for you to pay your employees via payroll or temporary employment? Then get in touch with us. TOSS will be happy to help you.