Tripartite committee determines guidelines for parental leave

Download article in original language : LU9805160NFR.DOC

In April 1998, Luxembourg's Tripartite Coordinating Committee proposed to Parliament new rules on parental leave.

Luxembourg's provisions on parental leave are currently limited in the private sector to an entitlement for women employees to stop work for up to a year after maternity leave and receive priority consideration for vacancies, though without being guaranteed re-engagement. The 1996 EU Directive on parental leave (96/34/EC) requires the Member States to implement its provisions - essentially a right for all employees to three months' parental leave for childcare purposes, distinct from maternity leave, after the birth or adoption of a child until a given age of up to eight years - by June 1998 (TN9801201S).

Under the umbrella of the National Action Plan for employment (LU9805157F) drawn up in April 1998 in response to the EU Employment Guidelines, the social partners, meeting within the Tripartite Coordinating Committee (Comité de Coordination Tripartite) have decided to present proposals on parental leave to Parliament. The main points are as follows:

• both the mother and father will have individual entitlements to parental leave to look after the child for six months each. The leave may not be taken in parts, but only in a single block. The aim is to encourage the recruitment of a temporary replacement worker, and open up job opportunities for unemployed workers for at least six months and, in certain circumstances, for as long as 10 or 11 months;

• after maternity leave has come to an end, one of the parents will be able to choose between the current child allowance (allocation d'éducation) scheme - whereby they will receive LUF 16,640 a month for up to 22 months with no guaranteed re-engagement - or six months' parental leave on a benefit of around LUF 60,000 a month and with guaranteed re-engagement. The second parent may take six months' unbroken parental leave, and qualify for the same parental leave benefit, in the period up until the child is five years old; and

• parental leave may also be taken while working half-time. The leave is then extended to 12 months and the benefit is paid out in 12 instalments