Holidays, schools and closed day care: Two licenses that parents should know

Ataste can be a particularly difficult month for parents without a support network, since with schools and closed day care centers are without solutions to reconcile work with paying attention to younger ones. However, the lawyer and parental rights consultant Marta Esteves revealed to News to Minutes there are two licenses that can help at this time. 

“ There are two permits for parents to apply during this period: supplementary parental leave and childcare leave“, the lawyer revealed, admitting that “with most schools and day care centers closed in August, who does not have a support network like grandparents, for example, does not have a solution in the explicit Law for this time”.

Additional parental leave

In the case of supplementary parental leave, it should be noted that “may be enjoyed until the child is six years old, despite having several modalities available, the best known modality is the extended three-month leave and is subsidized by Social Security at 30% of the reference remuneration or 40% if both parents enjoy this leave”.

According to the information provided in social Security website, it is a “monthly support paid to the father, mother or both, for a three-month leave, to take care of children up to six years and compensate for loss of income”.

The conditions for entitlement are as follows: 

• comply with the guarantee period, i.e. having cashed at least six months (followed or not), until the day on which you stopped working to start enjoying the licence;
• have the contribution situation settled on the date on which the entitlement to the allowance is recognised, if you are an independent worker or are covered by the Voluntary Social Insurance scheme. 

You should also know that “duration and value are variable”, but you can “ask for the Compensation of holiday and Christmas allowances”. 

Childcare leave

The license for child care is a “unpaid leave without any associated allowance, which may only be taken after the additional licence has been exhausted and can be enjoyed up to 12 years of the child”.

This licence, if any, is provided for in Article 52 of the Labour Code: “After having exhausted the right referred to in the preceding article, parents are entitled to leave for child care, consecutively or interpolated, up to a maximum of two years“.

According to the law, “in the absence of an indication to the contrary by the worker, the leave lasts for six months”.

Should you ask or (just) tell the company?

Lawyer Marta Esteves underlines that “any of these licenses, this is a communication to the employer and not a request“.

Therefore, it is sufficient “that, when the legal requirements are met, they are communicated in writing to their employer with at least 30 days in advance“.