Employee permanently caring for a child and entitlement for holidays

Pursuant to Section 103, par. 2 of the Labour Code, an employee who at the end of the relevant calendar year will be aged at least 33 and an employee who is permanently taking care of a child has the right to paid holiday of at least five weeks.

The Labour Code lacked a definition of permanent childcare; therefore, a new paragraph 11 is added to Section 40 of the Labour Code

"For the purposes of this Act, an employee permanently taking care of a child is an employee who personally takes care of his or her own underaged child, including alternating custody of both parents, and an employee who personally takes care of an underaged child in his or her custody replacing parental care on the basis of a court decision. This employee status shall start on the day when the employee notifies the employer in writing of the fact that he or she is permanently taking care of a child pursuant to the first sentence above, and it shall terminate on the day when the employee stops taking care of the child pursuant to the first sentence above. The employee shall notify the employer of termination of care of the child in writing without undue delay."

In case of divorce, the employee loses his or her entitlement to paid holiday of 5 weeks in the event that the child is placed in the custody of the other parent by court.

An employee is entitled to 5 weeks of holiday in case he takes care of his own child even without being married to his partner, i.e., the mother of the child. This entitlement does not apply to a situation when the employee lives in the same household as the mother of the child – the child is not placed in his custody.