Germany: applying for parental leave, deadlines, claim and part-time

It is available until the child’s third birthday; up to 24 months can be taken between the third and eighth birthdays (§ 15 para. 2 BEEG).

It can be taken by each parent alone or by both together, also in part (§ 15 para. 3 BEEG).

More periods are possible only with the employer’s consent (§ 16 para. 1 BEEG).

Parental leave is time off work, Elterngeld the money benefit: separate claims, separate months. The Elterngeld calculator and the guide help.

Under § 15 MuSchG this should happen as early as possible. Dismissal is not allowed during pregnancy if the employer knows or is told within two weeks (§ 17).

For the protection period before the birth and for the maternity allowance, the date on the certificate counts (§ 3 para. 1 MuSchG; § 24i para. 3 SGB V).

Before the birth you may keep working voluntarily. Twelve weeks after the birth apply for premature and multiple births and a disabled child (on request) (§ 3 MuSchG).

The fund pays €13 per calendar day at most; the employer pays the rest up to the previous net pay (§ 24i SGB V, § 20 MuSchG).

It is €210 in total at most (§ 19 para. 2 MuSchG).

The ban applies until the end of the protection period after the birth, at least four months; only the supervisory authority can allow exceptions (§ 17 MuSchG).

That applies to the time up to the third birthday; between the third and eighth birthdays it is 13 weeks (§ 16 para. 1 BEEG). Text form is enough, for example an email.

That is what § 16 para. 1 BEEG requires for parental leave up to the child’s third birthday.

The time of the maternity protection period is credited to the mother’s parental leave (§ 15 para. 2 sentence 3, § 16 para. 1 BEEG).

It must do so (§ 16 para. 1). When you change employer, the new employer can ask for proof of parental leave already taken.

§ 16 para. 1 sentence 3 BEEG allows that exceptionally. Mothers who miss the period through no fault of their own can make up for it within a week (para. 2).

No contract can exclude it (§ 15 para. 2). Only a third period between the third and eighth birthdays can the employer refuse for urgent operational reasons (§ 16).

For another employer or self-employment you need your employer’s consent, which it can refuse only within four weeks for urgent operational reasons (§ 15 para. 4 BEEG).

Also 15 to 32 hours a week for at least two months and no urgent operational reasons against it (§ 15 para. 7 BEEG).

State start and scope, ideally the distribution too. If the employer does not refuse in text form within four weeks (eight from the third birthday), consent is deemed given (§ 15 para. 7).

That applies as far as agreement with the employer is not possible (§ 15 para. 6 BEEG).

The right to return to the working time agreed before the parental leave remains unaffected (§ 15 para. 5 BEEG).

It applies from the request, at the earliest eight weeks before the start (14 weeks for leave between the third and eighth birthdays), and during the whole leave (§ 18 BEEG).

It may cut it by one twelfth for each full calendar month of parental leave, but not if you work part-time for it during the leave (§ 17 para. 1 BEEG).

The employer must grant holiday not taken after the parental leave, in the current or next holiday year (§ 17 para. 2 BEEG).

It is paid retroactively only for the last three months of life before the month of the claim (§ 7 para. 1 BEEG).

That is what § 16 para. 5 BEEG provides.

This works with the employer’s consent. For the birth of another child or in hardship cases, it can refuse only within four weeks for urgent operational reasons (§ 16 para. 3 BEEG).

That is in § 19 BEEG.