Since 2022, parental leave consists of two parts:

1. Parents receive 9 weeks of paid parental leave in the child's first year of life

2. Parents can take a total of 26 weeks of unpaid parental leave in the first eight years of their child's life. The first 9 weeks are then paid (see 1.), so if you use this, you are still entitled to 17 weeks of leave after the first to the eighth year of life. In principle, this leave is unpaid, unless the employer and employees make other agreements about this within their company or collective agreement.

The employee may decide for himself how he or she takes parental leave. This applies in the first year for paid leave, but also thereafter for unpaid leave. For example, in the case of unpaid leave in the child's first 8 years by working half as much for a year or by taking half a year off. But your employer can also ask you to arrange parental leave in a different way. This is only allowed if the company would otherwise run into serious problems. The employer can propose a different distribution of parental leave up to 4 weeks before the commencement date.

Employees with a min-max contract are also entitled to parental leave. He or she is entitled to leave of 26 times your number of working hours (working hours) per week. The working hours are in any case your guarantee hours. Warranty hours are the minimum number of hours you work per week according to your contract. If these are not fixed, or if they are zero, the average hours worked over the last 3 months are taken into account.

If an employee goes on parental leave, this does not change the employment contract. This means that he or she retains the right to his or her own position during the leave. Even when the parental leave has ended, the employee is still entitled to his own position. After the leave, the employee is also entitled to the number of hours stated in the contract.

At the end of parental leave, the employee returns to the original working hours. The employee has the option of temporarily adjusting these working hours (working time pattern). The number of hours worked remains the same as for parental leave.
You can adjust your working hours for 1 year. If your employer agrees, this period may be longer. You request the temporary adjustment of working hours from the employer. You do this 3 months before the parental leave ends. The employer must respond to this no later than 4 weeks before the end of the leave. He may refuse your request.

Yes, you can take your remaining parental leave to a new employer. The (new) employer can ask whether you have already taken parental leave with a previous employer. That is why you ask your previous employer for a statement showing how much parental leave you are still entitled to. Employers are obliged to issue this statement on request.

The cabinet has decided to pay for the first 9 of the 26 weeks of parental leave. Parents receive a benefit from the UWV amounting to 70% of their daily wage, up to 70% of the maximum daily wage. In addition, an important element of the paid part of parental leave is that it must be taken during the child's first year of life. The remaining 17 weeks of leave remain legally unpaid and can still be taken until the child's 8th birthday.

It remains possible for employers and employees to make additional agreements about this. This can be done at company level, but of course also through negotiation and including additional rules in the collective labor agreement.

You request parental leave in writing from the employer. You do this at least 2 months before the leave starts. If the parental leave depends on the date of delivery, you can indicate this. In the request you also indicate how you want to take parental leave. You decide how and when you take the leave.