Summary
Who can benefit from parental leave?
Any employee working in a company for at least one year (the father or the mother of the child, the 2 being able to benefit from it at the same time or alternately) on the occasion of the birth (and until his 3 years) or the adoption of a child under 16 years of age.
Note: the employer cannot refuse the leave, regardless of the size of the company.
What are the benefits of this parental leave?
You can benefit from this unpaid leave:
- in the event of the birth of a child: the leave expires on their 3rd birthday;
- in the event of the adoption of a child under the age of 3: the leave ends at the end of a period of 3 years;
- in the event of the adoption of a child aged 3 to 16: in this case, the parental leave and the period of part-time activity cannot exceed 1 year from the child’s arrival in the home.
The leave can be extended by 1 year in the event of serious illness, accident or disability of the child.
Note: the leave is unpaid but the beneficiary can, if he meets the conditions, benefit from the free choice of activity supplement paid by the family allowance fund (CAF).
Parental leave can be taken in 3 different forms:
- either the employee ceases his activity for a maximum period of 3 years in the event of the birth or adoption of a child under the age of 3 and one year in the event of the adoption of a child aged 3 to 16 ;
- either he only works part-time (working time between 16 and 32 hours per week) during the same period;
- or he follows, on his own initiative, an unpaid professional training, which allows him to benefit from the coverage of the risk of accident at work.
In the event of a second birth during parental leave, if the employee requests another parental leave, the starting point for this 2nd leave must be calculated from the end of the maternity to which the employee could have claimed, if she had not been on parental leave for the first child.
Note: the initial duration of the leave is 1 year maximum. The employee must request its extension twice to benefit from it until the date of the child’s 3rd birthday.
What should be done ?
Notify your employer by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, indicating the duration that you intend to give to parental leave:
- either one month before the end of maternity leave (see our topic on maternity insurance or adoption leave;
- or at least 2 months before the start of parental leave or part-time work if it does not start immediately after maternity or adoption leave.
For each of the 2 renewals, the employee must notify the employer 1 month before the expiry of the current leave, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt.
He has the possibility of transforming the parental leave into a period of part-time activity or the period of part-time activity into parental leave and must inform him of this at that time.
What happens after this parental leave?
At the end of the leave, the employee returns to his previous job or a similar job with at least equivalent remuneration as well as his rights to benefits in kind and in cash from the health, maternity, invalidity and death insurance. The duration of this maintenance of rights is set at 12 months.
An employee who, at the end of his leave, does not wish to return to his job must resign. The employer can then demand that the employee return to the company to carry out his notice.
The employee who, at the end of the leave, cannot return to work due to a new maternity or illness regains the rights to the benefits of the scheme to which he was subject before the leave.
Our tips:
In the event of the death of the child or a significant reduction in household resources, the employee may resume his duties without the prior agreement of the employer.
For the calculation of seniority, the duration of the leave counts for half. But it does not count for paid vacation.
The employee is entitled to continued benefits in kind (reimbursement of care) from sickness and maternity insurance during the leave period, but not to cash benefits (daily allowances).