About parental leave
There are several different grounds for leave under the Parental Leave Act (1995:584). The employee has the right to be on leave when any of these forms of leave are applied for. Discrimination based on an application may constitute discrimination under the Discrimination Act (2008:567), which may lead to liability for damages for the employer. It is therefore important to always process parental leave applications correctly and without discriminatory elements. There are six types of parental leave:
Maternity leave
Maternity leave Full leave for a female worker in connection with the birth of her child and for breastfeeding (Parental Leave Act (1995:584), Section 4).
Full leave for one parent until the child is 18 months old
Full leave for a parent until the child reaches the age of 18 months or, provided that the parent then has full parental benefit, for the period thereafter (Parental Leave Act (1995:584), Section 5).
Parental leave with parental allowance
Leave for a parent in the form of a three-quarter, half, one-quarter or one-eighth reduction in normal working hours while the parent receives three-quarters, half, one-quarter or one-eighth of parental benefit (Parental Leave Act (1995:584), Section 6).
Partial leave without parental benefit
Leave for a parent in the form of a reduction in normal working hours by up to a quarter until, in the main case, the child reaches the age of eight (Parental Leave Act (1995:584), Section 7).
Leave with temporary parental allowance
Leave for an employee's temporary care of children, for example VAB, birth of a child, or death of a child (Parental Leave Act (1995:584) Section 8).
Leave with carer's allowance
Leave for a parent in the form of a reduction in normal working hours by up to a quarter if a care allowance is paid for the child (Parental Leave Act (1995:584), Section 9).
Application form
The employee should submit an application for parental leave at least two months in advance, or if that is not possible, as soon as possible. As an employer, it is important to be flexible in cases where the two-month rule cannot be respected, especially if the employee has valid reasons for the late application. In practice, employers should avoid denying leave as much as possible, as this can lead to legal risks and possible complaints to the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO). In addition, the law stipulates that the employee must submit the request "as soon as possible" if the request is not made at least two months before.
If the application does not meet the deadlines, a dialogue with the worker can be a way to resolve the situation and find a common solution.
How the leave may be taken
Leave may be divided into a maximum of three periods per calendar year. If a period of leave extends over a year, it is considered to belong to the calendar year in which the leave began. However, certain leaves are excluded from the three periods, such as leave with temporary parental allowance (Parental Leave Act (1995:584), Section 8) or leave with parental allowance under the Social Insurance Code (Chapter 12, Sections 5a-7a).
In the case of full-time leave, the employee has the right to decide which days to take off. In the case of reduced working hours, leave can be spread over all days of the working week or taken on certain days of the working week.
Example:
An employee reduces her working hours from January to June by 50%, requests two weeks' leave in connection with the Easter holidays, and extends her holiday by one week's full-time parental leave in July. This means that the three periods have been used up. If the employee applies for parental leave also in the fall, he or she is not entitled to leave. However, you as the employer can still approve it.
