Family leave: obsolete barriers

By Camille Frati, Lex Kleren, Eric Engel Switch to French for original article

Maternity and parental leave are granted for each unborn child, provided an affiliation to the social security system for a certain length of time. However, this clause is increasingly incompatible with the lifestyles of today's young parents.

"I've been working for the same company since 2012 and I've hardly ever been absent, but I was still refused parental leave by indirectly telling me that I'd got pregnant at the wrong time." This is one of the many accounts of refusal of parental leave brought together in a recent article in the Lëtzebuerger Journal. While the situations differed from one family to another, they converged in terms of the reason given: insufficient length of membership of the social security system. To be eligible for parental leave, a family must have been registered with the Joint Social Security Centre (CCSS) for twelve months prior to the start of the parental leave. For example, if parental leave is due to start on 1. January 2025, the parent must have been registered with the CCSS since 1. January 2024 at the latest, with a maximum of seven days' interruption in that period.

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