Maternity leave for the child's father and leave on the terms of maternity leave

Are you planning to expand your family? If you want, you can stay at home with your child for up to a year. Free is available to both biological and adoptive parents. Find out what your rights are at work as a young parent.

What holidays are entitled to family enlargement?

Young parents, after the birth or adoption of a child, have to use:

• maternity leave,

• additional maternity leave,

• parental leave,

• parental leave.

If parents decide to take advantage of all their options, they must remember that the annual leave must be continuous. This means that the individual parts of the leave should follow one another, without breaks.

Maternity and paternity leave

After the baby is born, the mother is obliged to take maternity leave for the first 14 weeks after giving birth in order to regenerate the body. After this period, the father may take the leave due to her. In this case, the mother must make a declaration to her employer that she is transferring part of her leave to the child's father. The father, in turn, must apply to his employer for paternity leave.

It will be paternity leave - part of maternity leave unused by the mother. The employee will also take advantage of paternity leave if the child's mother remains in the hospital after giving birth and will not be able to look after the child. We will deal with a similar situation in the case of the mother's death in childbirth.

Both maternity and paternity leave provide parents with 100% of the average salary for the last 12 months. After the end of the leave, the employer is obliged to re-admit the employee / employee to work under the same conditions as before the birth of the child.

Maternity leave lasts a total of 20 weeks (after the birth of one child). In the case of multiple births, the leave period is extended and amounts to:

• 2 children - 31 weeks,

• 3 children - 33 weeks,

• 4 children - 35 weeks,

• 5 and more children - 37 weeks.

 

From 2013, a pregnant woman has new rights to take maternity leave before childbirth. The period of such leave is 6 weeks, if the expectant mother decides to use it, she is entitled to the remainder after giving birth until the entire period is exhausted.

Paternity leave

Paternity leave is 14 days off for a young dad, it should not be confused with paternity leave. Paternity leave is due to every father, he may take paternity leave only if the mother waives part of the maternity leave. An employee may use paternity leave at the same time as his partner, e.g. just after giving birth, to look after her and the newborn baby.

The father to whom the child is born is granted 2 weeks of paternity leave, which he can use at any time until the child is 12 months old. A leave is also granted to a child accepted for upbringing. Paternity leave cannot be divided.

In order to receive paternity leave, it is necessary to submit an application 7 days before the planned start of the leave, which must be accompanied by the child's birth certificate and a declaration that the paternity leave for this child has not yet been used by another employer. The employer is obliged to comply with the employee's request pursuant to Art. 182 of the Labor Code. For the period of its duration, the employee is entitled to a maternity allowance.

Important! Maternity allowance is a payment under your health insurance. It is financed from the ZUS sickness fund. This means that the employer does not finance it from its own resources. It only pays eligible persons. The amount of benefits should be properly accounted by the contribution payer with ZUS.

Additional maternity leave

The length of additional maternity leave depends on the number of born or adopted children and amounts to:

• 1 child - 6 weeks,

• 2 and more children - 8 weeks.

If an employee submits a written application for parental leave within 14 days after giving birth, then for the entire period of maternity leave, additional maternity leave and parental leave, she will be entitled to an allowance of 80% of the allowance calculation basis.

If the application is submitted at a later date, 100% of the allowance will be paid for maternity leave and additional maternity leave so far, and 60% for the period of parental leave.

Both the mother and father of the child can take advantage of additional maternity leave. It can be divided by the parents among themselves into two parts lasting at least one week.

Additional maternity leave may be combined with work of no more than half full-time employment. In such a case, additional maternity leave is granted for the remaining part of the working time. If an employee wants to take up a part-time job while taking additional maternity leave, she must submit a written application to the employer no later than 14 days before starting work. The employer is obliged to comply with the employee's request, unless it is not possible due to the organization of work or the type of work performed by the employee.

Parental leave

After using the additional maternity leave, parents can take advantage of 26 weeks of parental leave. It may be divided into a maximum of 3 parts, each part must last at least 8 weeks. Parents may take the leave alternately or together. If they decide to take parental leave at the same time, the leave time is shared between them and in practice amounts to 13 weeks. Also in the case of parental leave, it is possible to combine it with part-time work (maximum half-time).

Parental leave

A childcare leave is granted to an employee who has been employed for at least 6 months. The maximum duration of the leave is 35 (and in special cases 36) months. Childcare leave can be divided into 5 parts. The leave is granted for a period not longer than until the child reaches the age of 5. Importantly, 1 month of leave is at the sole disposal of each parent. This means that one of the parents can take a maximum of 35 months of leave. Additionally, both parents have the right to use a childcare leave for 4 months at the same time. Childcare leave is granted at the employee's request, and its length is included in the length of service. After the leave ends, the employee has the right to return to work for the same or a similar position.

Important! Childcare leave is free.

It is worth remembering that the use of parental leaves does not affect the length of the holiday leave. The leave related to parenthood does not shorten the holiday leave and do not deprive the right to it.