Do you work in Luxembourg and expect a child? Would you like to receive parental leave? Frontaliers Grand Est presents your rights and steps to be taken!

I am a cross-border worker, am I entitled to benefit from parental leave?

Yes. Everyone who works in Luxembourg has the right to get parental leave.

How does parental leave work in Luxembourg?

There are 2 different types of parental leave:

• The first parental leave must be taken successively after the birth or after the adoption of a child.
• The second parental leave must be taken before the child is 6 years old.

If only one of the parents works in Luxembourg, the cross-border worker can choose between the two types of parental leave.

If both parents work in Luxembourg, each parent has the right to receive parental leave. Since October 1st, 2016, both parental leaves can be taken at the same time by both parents.

• The child must be raised at his home
• The parent must be covered by Luxembourgish social security
• The employment contract(s) has/have to cover the whole period of parental leave for at least 10 work hours per week.
• The parent mustn't be engaged in any professional activity during the full-time parental leave or engage a part-time activity during the part-time parental leave.

There are 3 possibilities:

• Full-time parental leave for 4 or 6 months (without any professional activity)
• Part-time parental leave for 8 or 12 months: in this case, the working hours must be reduced to half during the relevant period.
• Split parental leave with 2 terms:
  • A reduction of the working time by 1 day a week for 20 months
  • Or a reduction for four periods of one month for a maximum of 20 months (in total 4 of 20 months not worked)

What steps should be taken?

In the case of the first type of parental leave, it is necessary to tell your employer by registered letter 2 months before the first day of parental leave at the latest and in the case of the second type of parental leave at least 6 months beforehand.

It is also necessary to send a request to the "Caisse pour l'Avenir des Enfants (CAE)" in Luxembourg by filling in a form available on www.cae.public.lu. Some documents must be provided.

Your employer will not remunerate you during the full-time parental leave. Concerning the part-time parental leave, you will receive 50 % of your salary from your employer. Within the split parental leave, the employee who doesn't work one day per week will get 80% of his salary and the one who doesn't work for 4 of 20 months won't get paid for those 4 months.

The CAE will disburse an income replacement depending on different specifications. It lay between 1.998,59€/month and 3.330,98€/month in 2018.