Parental leave from 2023 – longer and exclusive

On 21 March, the President signed the Act of 9 March 2023 amending the Labour Code and certain other laws (Bill No. 2932), implementing the provisions of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) 2019/1158 of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU (OJ EU L No 188, p. 79). The changes in labour law extend parental leave and introduce an individual right to leave for each parent (non-transferable to the other parent).

Extended Parental Leave Periods

According to the amended Article 182(1a) of the Labour Code, parents of a child will be entitled to parental leave to care for the child for up to:

41 weeks – in the case of the birth of one child at a single birth;

43 weeks – in the case of multiple births.

Furthermore, parents of a child holding a certificate confirming a severe and irreversible disability or incurable life-threatening illness, which arose during the prenatal development period or at the time of birth, will be entitled to parental leave to care for the child for up to:

65 weeks – in the case of the birth of one child at a single birth;

67 weeks – in the case of multiple births.

According to the justification of the draft, the proposed changes aim to implement Article 5 of Directive 2019/1158, according to which Member States shall introduce the necessary measures to ensure that every employee has an individual right to parental leave of four months to be taken before the child reaches a certain age, up to a maximum of eight years, to be specified by individual Member States or collective agreements. Moreover, in line with recital 24 of Directive 2019/1158, the period during which employees are entitled to parental leave should be linked to the child’s age. This age should be determined so as to enable both parents to effectively use the full parental leave entitlement granted to them under Directive 2019/1158.

Offer: Legal Adviser: Labour Law and Social Security Matters

Non-Transferable Part of the Leave

Unlike previous regulations, each employee-parent will have an exclusive right to 9 weeks of parental leave from the total parental leave entitlement stated above. This means, for example, that if the mother uses the entire parental leave, the father still retains the right to 9 weeks’ leave. The right to the 9-week leave cannot be transferred to the other parent (it will be a non-transferable part of the leave). At the same time, the new regulations specify that taking at least 9 weeks of parental leave by an employee-parent means the use of the non-transferable part of the leave.

As stated in the draft’s justification, this change is motivated by recital 20 of Directive 2019/1158, which notes that since most fathers do not use parental leave or transfer a significant part of their leave rights to mothers, in order to encourage fathers to take parental leave while preserving the right of each parent to at least four months of parental leave as provided in Directive 2010/18/EU, this Directive extends the minimum non-transferable period of parental leave from one to two months. The aim of ensuring that at least two months of parental leave are available exclusively to each parent and cannot be transferred to the other parent is to encourage fathers to exercise their entitlement to such leave. This solution also promotes and facilitates mothers’ return to the labour market after maternity and parental leave.

The described changes come into force 21 days after the publication of the Act.