What is a letter granting or denying parental leave? Explanation and usage

What is a letter granting or denying parental leave? It is the employer's written response to an employee's leave notification, stating which hours are granted, how the leave will be taken, and what consequences this has for salary, accrual, and scheduling. The word 'denying' in the common name is misleading. The employer cannot refuse the right to parental leave itself. They can only change the desired method of taking the leave, and then only on the grounds of a compelling business or service interest. Below is an explanation of the legal situation and the function the letter fulfills in practice.

The short answer

• Right, not a favor: every employee with a child under the age of eight is entitled to parental leave (Art. 6:1 Wazo).
• Scope: 26 times the weekly working hours, per child (Art. 6:2 Wazo).
• Paid portion: nine of those 26 weeks were paid with a UWV benefit of 70 percent of the daily wage, provided they were taken within the first year of the child's life.
• Notification: the employee notifies the leave in writing at least two months before the start date (Art. 6:5 Wazo).
• Amendment: the employer may only adjust the content after consultation, on the basis of a compelling business or service interest, and up to four weeks before the effective date at the latest.
• The lettersets out the amount, the distribution, the paid and unpaid portions, and the consequences for salary, accrual, and pension.

What exactly is a letter granting or denying parental leave from a legal perspective?

Parental leave is set out in Chapter 6 of the Work and Care Act. Unlike a request for adjustment of working hours, this is not a request that the employer can grant or reject, but rather a notification. Consequently, in Article 6:5 of the Work and Care Act, the Act refers to notification, not application. If that notification meets the requirements, the leave arises by operation of law.

Therefore, a letter bearing the heading "rejection" is almost never legally correct. The employer has exactly one authority: after consultation with the employee, he may change the desired method of execution due to compelling business or service interests. This authority expires four weeks before the effective date. He can therefore shift the distribution over the week, the number of hours per week, or the period. The total entitlement of 26 weeks remains in effect in all cases.

The letter therefore primarily serves a recording function. It confirms what has been reported, which hours have been allocated, which portion has been paid and which has not, and what changes are being made regarding wages and administration. Moreover, in the event of a change in the arrangement, the letter serves as the document in which the compelling interest is substantiated. Without that substantiation, the change will not stand up in court, and the reported arrangement remains in effect.

Exactly how much leave an employee has

The calculation is simpler than it seems.

• Total: 26 times the weekly working hours. For a 32-hour work week, that is 832 hours per child.
• Paid: nine times the weekly working hours, with a benefit from the UWV of 70 percent of the daily wage, capped at 70 percent of the maximum daily wage. A condition is that this part is taken up during the first year of the child's life.
• Unpaid: the remaining part, to be taken up to the child's eighth birthday, unless the collective labour agreement provides for continued payment.
• Per child: in the case of twins, the right exists twice.
• Adopted and foster children: the paid portion applies during the first year after placement in the family, as long as the child is younger than eight years old.
• Remainder upon transfer: unused leave carries over to a new employer. The new employer may request a statement from the previous employer regarding the number of hours already taken.

The employer applies for the UWV benefit after the employee has taken at least one week of paid parental leave. State in the letter who is making the application and at what time. In practice, this is the most common source of misunderstandings, along with the question of whether the benefit is deducted from the payslip or paid directly.

When the employer may change the interpretation

Substantial business or service interest is a strict criterion. Scheduling inconvenience, extra planning work, or the fact that a colleague has to take over tasks is insufficient. What does stand a chance in practice:

• The requested distribution leaves a critical position structurally unmanned on the busiest day, without a replacement being available on the labor market.
• The safety or continuity of service is compromised, for example in the case of a prescribed minimum staffing level per shift.
• Leave has already been granted to multiple employees in the same position, causing staffing levels to drop below a demonstrable minimum.

Even then, the following applies: the employer changes the arrangement; they do not cancel the leave. Anyone who changes the distribution from two fixed days to four half days must substantiate this in the letter with facts and figures and demonstrate that consultation took place beforehand. If this is not done before the limit of four weeks prior to the effective date, the authority expires and the reported arrangement applies without further ado.

The consequences that should be in the letter

The part that is most often missing concerns the consequences. In any case, include:

• Salary: there is no entitlement to salary for unpaid leave hours. State the new gross monthly amount and from which month it will be visible on the payslip.
• Benefit: amount, duration, and whether it is paid via the employer or directly to the employee.
• Holidays and holiday allowance: in principle, accrual does not continue for hours not entitled to pay. Check what the collective labour agreement stipulates and state the outcome in the letter.
• Pension: whether accrual continues and the premium distribution follows from the pension regulations and sometimes from the collective labour agreement. Refer to the specific scheme.
• Other employment conditions: lease car, telephone, home working allowance, bonus scheme, and thirteenth month salary.
• Return: the employee returns to the original working hours upon termination, unless he also submits a request pursuant to the Flexible Working Act.

Practical example: an installation company received a notification for parental leave on Friday, the busiest delivery day. During the consultation, the employee proved flexible regarding the choice of day, but not the number of hours. The letter stipulated: 8 hours per week for 26 weeks on Wednesdays, with the first nine weeks paid and the application for benefits by the employer. With this, both the staffing on Friday and the full leave entitlement were arranged.

Honest recommendation

You do not always need a lawyer for this. If the leave is reported as required by law, the requested staffing fits the schedule, and you grant the full leave, a one-page confirmation letter containing the hours, the period, the paid portion, and the wage implications suffices. Many payroll administrators and industry associations provide a useful template for this, and the amounts are derived from the payroll records in any case.

Do have the letter drafted or reviewed if you wish to change the requested arrangement, if multiple types of leave overlap, if the collective labour agreement contains its own regulation that deviates from the law, or if the relationship with the employee is already strained. A change without proper substantiation of the compelling interest almost always leads to a wage claim and sometimes to a dispute regarding disadvantage due to taking leave.

Read more: have a letter granting or rejecting parental leave drafted and example of a letter granting or rejecting parental leave. You can arrange this immediately via the page draft or check a letter granting or rejecting parental leave.

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