We have now discussed emergency leave and short-term care leave. Both can be used as a working mother if you are 'in need' on a short term. In addition, there are also possibilities to provide care in the longer term if you deem it necessary, for example long-term care leave.
Suppose your child turns out to be seriously, even life-threatening, ill. Work is the last thing you want to think about. You want to focus completely on the care of your child. Rightly so. For these difficult situations it is possible to long-term leave to record.
Long-term care leave is intended to care for a loved one (child, partner or parent) who is life-threateningly ill for a longer period of time.
This leave must be requested (in writing) from the employer, at least 2 weeks in advance. There is a maximum number of hours of long-term care leave per year, namely 6 times the number of working hours per week † The form of the leave can vary from taking 6 weeks of full leave to a maximum of 18 weeks, one third of the working hours and all forms in between.
You may apply for long-term leave once every 12 months. For someone with a 36-hour working week, this is then a maximum of 216 hours per year. The same rules apply to long-term leave as to short-term leave. The employer may only refuse if the organization runs into serious problems as a result of the leave. Once the leave has started, the employer may not stop it.
But some things are fundamentally different. The employer is not obliged to continue to pay for the leave, in addition to no salary, this can have consequences for the pension accrual (check the applicable collective labor agreement or the personnel manual for this) and you are not insured for the sickness benefit and WAO/WIA. Holiday hours are accrued over the period.
As you have now read, there are several ways to provide care if necessary, even if you have a (full-time) job. Looking for even more information? Then take a look here.
