More flexible parental leave and caregiver leave

With effect from 1 January 2015 the new “Parental Allowance Plus” was introduced, together with an enforceable entitlement of employees to the granting of family nursing-care leave. Employers are faced with increasing flexibilisation of working-time models, yet employees are also being offered incentives to return to their gainful employment.

The “very grand coalition” is untiring in its passing of employmentlaw reforms. In principle, the aim of improved compatibility of work and family must by all means be welcomed. Nevertheless, it is also creating personnel planning challenges for companies. Common to the two legislative amendments concerning the parental allowance and the legal entitlement to family nursingcare leave is the fact that companies may have to do without the (full) working capacity of an employee at relatively short notice.

The new “Parental Allowance Plus”

One parent can claim the parental allowance for a total of 12 months in the period from the birth of a child up until the age of 14 months. This was previously the case and also remains applicable in principle. Nevertheless, the legislator has now extended the entitlement to parental allowance in favour of parents in certain cases.

The first reform is the “Parental Allowance Plus”: instead of claiming the parental allowance for one month, employees can also draw the Parental Allowance Plus for two months (Section 4 Subsection 3 Sentence 1 BEEG (Parental Allowance and Parental Leave Act)). This can be decided anew for each month. This means that the employee can double the maximum payment period. In return, the Parental Allowance Plus paid out is just half the amount of the regular parental allowance. As the payment period is extended, a smaller share of the parental allowance falls “victim” of the crediting as per Sections 2, 3 BEEG if one parent engages in part-time employment. Additionally, the Parental Allowance Plus can also still be claimed after the age of 14 months (Section 4 Subsection 1 Sentence 2 BEEG).

“Partnership bonus”

A further new aspect of the parental allowance is the “partnership bonus”. If both parents simultaneously engage in gainful employment for an average of between 25 and 30 hours per week for four consecutive months, each parent is entitled to four additional monthly amounts of Parental Allowance Plus for these months (Section 4 Subsection 4 Sentence 3 BEEG). This is intended to benefit parents who wish to share child care and gainful employment.

Later parental leave

There are also changes to details of the rulings on parental allowance. In future, it will also be possible to take up to 24 months parental leave between the child’s third and eighth birthdays. The consent of the employer is no longer required. The parental leave can be spread over three periods; the employer can only refuse a third period for compelling company reasons (Section 16 Subsection 1 Sentence 7 BEEG).

A legal entitlement to family nursing-care leave

The reform of the Family Nursing Care Act (FPfZG) also contains a far-reaching change. The term family nursing-care leave is understood as meaning the release of employees if they look after a close relative in need of care in the home environment (Section 2 Subsection 1 Sentence 1 FPfZG). Whereas it was previously only possible to take family nursing-care leave with the consent of the employer, the legislator has now upgraded this into a legal entitlement of the employee. A precondition is that the employer has more than 25 employees (excluding trainees). Accordingly, an employee who has to care for close relatives must be released for a maximum period of 24 months (Section 2 Subsection 1 Sentence 1 FPfZG). The reduced working time must be at least 15 hours per week over an average for the year (Section 2 Subsection 1 Sentence 2, 3 FPfZG).

To finance the family nursing-care leave, employees are entitled to an interest-free loan from the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs and Civil Duties (Section 3 Subsection 1 Sentence 1 FPfZG).

Employer and employee must reach a written agreement on the extent by which working hours are to be reduced and on which weekdays the employee will work (Section 2a Subsection 2 Sentence 1 FPfZG). The employer must comply with the wishes of the employee, unless compelling company reasons stand in the way of this (Section 2a Subsection 2 Sentence 2 FPfZG). As is so often the case however, there is still legal uncertainty concerning which case groups the courts will include in this category.

Summary

The new working-time models quickly create a situation for companies in which they have to grant an employee release or part-time work. Superiors are therefore well advised to continue to also show an interest in the private matters of their employees. This will prevent such situations from arising completely unexpectedly.