Further protection of employees related to maternity

In addition to maternity and parental leave, the law also gives you various rights at work.

Reassignment to another job and compensatory benefit

If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or have a child under 9 months of age, and are performing work that is forbidden to you, the employer must reassign you to another position.

Forbidden work means both any type of work prohibited to all pregnant or breastfeeding women, as well as work forbidden to you specifically by your physician as dangerous to your pregnancy or maternity.

If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or have a child under 9 months of age, and are working at night, the employer must reassign you to another (day) work upon your request.

Employers are also obliged to reassign pregnant employees to another job if, based on a medical statement issued by a preventive medical facility, the pregnant employee was deemed incapable of night work.

If this new job pays less, you may ask for a compensatory benefit. This benefit is paid from health insurance and is provided to those who were reassigned to another job and through no fault of theirs are now earning less than before. Compensatory benefits in pregnancy are paid for calendar days in which you were reassigned to another job for no longer than until the beginning of the 6th week before the expected day of childbirth; in some cases, this benefit is also paid to mothers after childbirth who are reassigned to another job.

Care benefit

You are entitled to receive a care benefit if you as an employee cannot work, because you have to:

• provide care to an ill member of your household; or
• provide care to a healthy child under the age of 10 because a school or other facility for children was closed (due to an accident, epidemic or other unforeseen occurance), the child was placed in quarantine or the person who normally takes care of the child fell ill.

Care benefits cannot be provided for children for whom (typically) the other parent has already applied for the financial maternity contribution or parental benefit, with the exception of situations in which this other person fell ill, suffered an injury, is in another situation defined by law, gave birth or was quarantined, and cannot therefore continue to take care for the child.

The care benefit is provided at 60% of your daily uniform rate. The support period for the care benefit is at most 9 calendar days. For single employees who are taking care of at least one child under 16 who has not finished compulsory school education, the support period is at most 16 calendar days.

Working conditions

Pregnant women and women taking care of a child under 1 year of age must not be ordered to work overtime.

If you are pregnant or have a child under the age of 15, you may ask your employer to shorten or adjust your working hours. The employer is obliged to accommodate your request, unless there are serious business reasons preventing it.

The employer must also take your needs into account when assigning you to shifts because you are taking care of children. The same protection again applies to men in similar situations.

Due to its nature and particularly the health risks it poses, overtime work should be an exception and only performed in cases which do not concern you at all as pregnant women or mothers and fathers with small children.

Termination of employment

In general, and not only for women, employers may not immediately terminate your employment or give you notice of termination while you are on sick leave.

Notice of termination

Employers may not give you notice of termination while you are pregnant or on maternity or parental leave.

You also cannot be given a valid notice when you have been pronounced temporarily unable to perform night work. If you received your notice before the beginning of the protected period and the time of notice ends within this period, the protected period is not included in the period of notice. This means that your employment will remain valid for the entire duration of your protected period and afterwards for the remaining part of the period of notice, unless you explicitly tell your employer that you do not insist on prolonging your employment.

This clause preventing termination of employment however does not apply to notices given due to organisational changes, relocation of the employer or other reasons for which employers may immediately terminate employment if you’re not a woman on maternity or a man on parental leave (during the time for which the woman is entitled to maternity leave). If you have been given notice for one of these reasons before the start of your maternity (parental) leave and the period of notice ends during this maternity (parental) leave, the period of notice will end at the same time as your maternity (parental) leave.

You, on the other hand, may give notice for any reason or even without providing any reason at all. You may give notice at any time, even on maternity or parental leave, regardless of whether you are a mother or a father.

Invalid termination of employment

During pregnancy, maternity or parental leave (regardless of whether the mother’s or the father’s) before the child reaches the age of 3, your employer may not give you notice of termination, including in cases where otherwise it would have been possible to terminate your employment immediately.

Note that this protection does not apply to you if:

- you are employed for a fixed time period;

- you are in trial period;

- the employer’s organisation is being closed or relocated.

Immediate termination of employment

Employers are not allowed to immediately terminate your employment if you are pregnant, on maternity or on parental leave.

You may immediately terminate your employment at any time, as described above in section 2. You however have to respect all legal requirements. You may immediately terminate your employment if you have a medical statement saying that you cannot continue to perform your job without serious threats to your health, and the employer has not given you the option of reassignment to another, more suitable job within 15 days after receiving this statement.

Using your vacation time

During maternity or parental leave, employers may not decide when you should use your vacation time.

If you are:

a female employee and ask the employer for vacation immediately after your

• maternity leave ends, or a male employee and ask the employer for vacation immediately after your parental leave that took as long as maternity leave ends,

the employer must accommodate your request.

Your “regular” vacation is suspended when you start your maternity or parental leave.

Significant personal obstacles

In addition to your absence from work during maternity or parental leave, employers must also excuse your absence when you are caring for a child under 10 years for certain reasons defined by law, or if you are taking care of a child instead of someone else who had to undergo a medical examination during working hours.

Reasons for which your employer must excuse your absence from the workplace and the need to take care of a child include the child’s illness or injury, but also cases when a kindergarten or school is closed for serious reasons (quarantine, accident or epidemics).