Paid Parental Leave Act

In contrast to the current scheme, from 2 August 2022 it will be possible to take a maximum of 9 weeks (based on full-time employment) of paid parental leave in the first year of the child’s life. This payment from the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) will amount to 70% of the employee’s daily wage (up to 70% of the maximum daily wage). This means that an employee can take 9 weeks as paid leave out of the maximum parental leave period of 26 weeks. The other 17 weeks will continue to be unpaid leave.

 

To obtain the payment, the employer can submit an application to the UWV. This is subject to a number of conditions:

  1. The 9 weeks of paid parental leave must be taken in the first year of the child’s life.
  2. The application can only be made after leave has been taken, i.e. the number of hours of leave must be known before the application is made. It is not necessary for the full leave to have been taken before applying.

 

If the paid parental leave is not taken, these 9 weeks are added to the 17 weeks of unpaid leave.

Number of hours of parental leave

The number of hours on which the entitlement to parental leave is calculated is determined on the basis of the number of contracted hours. If these hours change before or during the parental leave, the number of hours of parental leave must be recalculated.

Accrual of holiday and holiday allowance

The employee accrues holiday and holiday allowance during the paid parental leave. This applies both to the portion of the parental leave for which the employee receives a payment from the UWV and the portion for which the employer continues to pay his or her salary (on the basis of an employment contract or collective labour agreement, for example). The employee does not accrue any holiday or holiday allowance during the period of unpaid parental leave.

Child born before 2 August 2022

If the child was born before 2 August 2022, parents can still claim paid parental leave. This is subject to two additional conditions:

  1. The child must be less than one year old on 2 August 2022.
  2. At that time the parents or carers may not yet have used up their full parental leave entitlement.

Payment of paid parental leave

The payment from the UWV can be paid to the employer or directly to the employee concerned. The UWV issues the payment in a maximum of three instalments. It is possible to apply for the payment retrospectively from the UWV once the employee has taken paid parental leave corresponding to at least 1x the number of hours in his or her working week.

Other points to consider

  • The employee’s income may fall during the parental leave. For this reason it is advisable to check the entitlement to any allowances, such as childcare allowance, care allowance and housing allowance.
  • In principle, taking parental leave does not affect any unemployment or incapacity for work benefit. A different situation may apply if the employee has taken unpaid parental leave on a full-time basis for more than 18 months.
  • Document the agreements made relating to parental leave and the consequences of it.
  • Employees who are covered by social insurance in the Netherlands are entitled to claim paid parental leave in the Netherlands. Employees who live in the Netherlands and work in Germany, and are consequently not covered by social insurance in the Netherlands, do not qualify for the paid parental leave scheme.

 

Published on: 23-08-2022

Hester van Seventer

Senior legal expert

+31 481-36 58 20 h.van.seventer@bonsenreuling.nl Send a message

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