Leave for medical assistance

Leave for medical assistance or care to one household member or a family member who is seriously ill.

Principle

The Royal Decree of August 10th, 1998 provides that every employee has the right to suspend or reduce the execution of his employment contract in order to provide care to a member of his household or family who is seriously ill.

A household member is any person who is cohabiting with the worker.

A family member includes both parents and relatives up to the 2nd degree (children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters by blood or marriage (stepfamily)).

Serious illness means each illness or medical procedure that is considered as such by the attending physician and for which the physician believes that any form of social, family or mental assistance is necessary for recovery.

The types of leave (suspension or reduction of working hours)

Whether you are working full or part time, you can completely suspend your work during a period of 12 months per patient. This period will be of 24 months if you live exclusively and effectively with one or more of your children and are facing a serious illness of one of your children aged 16 years maximum.

If you are working full or part time counting at least ¾ of the weekly number of hours of full time worker, you can reduce your working hours to 50% of your working hours for a period of 24 months maximum per patient.  This period will be extended to 48 months if you live exclusively and effectively with one or more of your children and are facing a serious illness of one of your children aged 16 years maximum.

If you are working full time, you can reduce your working hours to a fifth during a period of 24 months maximum per patient. This period will be extended to 48 months if you live exclusively and effectively with one or more of your children and are facing a serious illness of one of your children aged 16 years maximum.

The total suspension and reduction of working hours must be taken by periods of one month minimum and three months maximum.

Warning: if you work for a small or medium company that, on June 30th of the previous calendar year had less than 10 employees, you can only but suspension your work instead of reducing them.

Prior notice to your employer

In order to benefit from a reduction of working hours or the suspension of your work, you must send a written notification letter to your employer 7 days before the leave starting date. This letter must also state the period and the type of leave. The notification may be sent by registered letter, supposed to be received on the 3rd business day after its sending, or through a written request, whose copy is signed for acknowledgement receipt by the employer.

A medical certificate from the attending physician treating the patient is to be attached to the notification. It states the patient's name and the fact that you are ready to provide him assistance and/or care.

The document composition de ménage (a certificate stating the household members) issued by the communal administration is to be attached to the notification if you have the status “alone” (living alone with one or more children) and want to benefit from the extra 12 months of work suspension or from the 24 months of reduced working hours.

A new notification is to be sent with a new medical certificate (and, possibly, a new composition de ménage) for each period of interruption extension.

Refusal of the employer

In principle, your employer can not refuse your leave. However, the company, which on June 30th of the previous calendar year had 50 or less workers, may refuse such leave for reasons of organization if you have already received six months of full suspension of your employment contract or 12 months to reduce your working hours for the same person.

In this case, your employer is to notify you in written and state the reasons of this refusal.

Postponement of leave

Within two business days following the receipt of the written notification, your employer may inform you that the effective date is delayed for reasons related to business operations. The duration of this postponement will be seven days.

Financial compensation

During the period of leave, you are entitled to an allowance for work interruption.

These amounts are application since May 1st 2011

Work interruption
	Full-time job 765,19 €	Part-time job : full time-job 765,19 € x (number of hours worked by the part-timer) / (number of hours of a full-time job)
Allowance for working hours reduction half-time
Gross monthly amounts	- 50 years 378, 09 €	50 years and elder 641,33 €
Part-time workers : prorated amounts
Reduction to one-fifth-time job
Gross monthly amounts	- 50 years 128,27 € or 165,80 € - 50 years alone	50 years and elder 256,53 €

Protection against redundancy

Your employer can not make you redundant during the leave period except for a serious or sufficient cause which is unrelated to the leave request (e.g. for economic reasons or because of the quality of your work).

This protection starts on the day of the written request and ends three months after the career break.