Corona-parental leave - the Special Powers Decree has been published in the Belgian Official Gazette

General principles

The corona-parental leave is a new, temporary, type of parental leave that will exist alongside the regular parental leave and shares the majority of the latter’s characteristics. However, differences exist on a number of important levels; the corona-parental leave has less stringent eligibility conditions, but requires the employer’s consent, and comes with an increased allowance from the National Employment Office (NEO) and a faster application procedure. Also important to point out is the fact that periods of corona-parental leave will have no impact on the employee’s outstanding balance of regular parental leave.

The corona-parental leave can be taken up either by reducing the working time by 1/2nd or by 1/5th and is applicable during the period from 1 May 2020 until 30 June 2020. Depending on the evolution of the pandemic, this period can be extended beyond 30 June 2020 by Royal Decree.

During this period, the corona-parental leave can be taken up as follows:

1. either in one continuous period;

2. or in one or several periods of one month (consecutive or not);

3. or in one or several periods of one week (consecutive or not);

4. or in a combination of options 2 and 3.

Procedure

In this respect, it’s important to point out that the corona-parental leave requires the employer’s consent. This is contrary to the regular parental leave, which - safe from the possibility for the employer to defer the request for leave for justified reasons related to the functioning of the company - in principle cannot be refused by the latter.

The employee who’d like to take up corona-parental leave must inform the employer in writing, at least 3 working days in advance. This can be done either by email - if there’s a confirmation of receipt by the employer -, by registered mail or by handing over the request on paper and having the employer sign a copy for receipt.

The employer must reply within maximum 3 days and at least before the requested start date of the corona-parental leave. The reply - containing the approval or refusal of the application for leave - must be done in writing or via email, however, using email requires a confirmation of receipt from the employee.

Once the employee receives approval from the employer, he must apply for a corona-parental leave allowance with the NEO. The request for an allowance must be made at the latest 2 months after the start of the corona-parental leave and can be done online.

Suspension regular parental leave or time credit

The corona-parental leave legislation contains specific provisions for employees who are currently already enrolled in the system of regular parental leave or a system of time credit, career interruption or thematic leave.

Employees who are currently enrolled in the system of regular parental leave can, for the period during which the corona-parental leave is applicable and after agreement of the employer, suspend their regular parental leave and instead request corona-parental leave. If they were enrolled in a system of 1/2nd or 1/5th regular parental leave, they can convert this to the corresponding fraction of corona-parental leave. However, it’s also possible to adjust the fraction of the regular parental leave and e.g. go from full-time or 1/10th regular parental leave to 1/2nd or 1/5th corona-parental leave. After the period of corona-parental leave, the regular parental leave will resume until the initially envisaged end date. Because, as mentioned above, the periods of corona-parental leave will not be subtracted from the employee’s outstanding balance of regular parental leave, the remainder of the initially applied for regular parental leave can still be taken up at a later date.

A similar mechanism has been adopted for employees who are currently enrolled in a system of time credit, career interruption or thematic leave.