Parental Leave

    This page will give you some more information about parental leave. These conditions apply to everyone who has a contract according to the Dutch regulations, whether you are living in the Netherlands or in Germany. Please note that regulations from other Dutch employers (such as the Radboud University) do not apply to MPI employees. 

    Regulations

    • You are entitled to parental leave when you are caring for a child who is younger than eight years of age. Both parents are entitled to parental lave. When you have more children, you can take parental leave for each child separately. If you have twins, you are entitled to twice the parental leave.
    • You are also entitled to parental leave for your adopted child, foster children, or stepchildren, provided the child is living with you.
    • You are entitled to parental leave of 26 times your weekly working hours and the division of the parental leave is flexible. 
    • The general norm is that for one year you will work half of your normal working hours. For example, if you work 32 hours per week, then for one year you will work 16 hours per week and you will have 16 hours parental leave. But you are not obliged to follow this general norm.
    • Parental leave should be requested in writing at least two months before the start of the parental leave and it should be approved by your Director.
    • You will not receive any salary for the hours taken as parental leave.
    • If you fall ill during the parental leave, the employer will only pay for the hours you should have worked. The parental leave period will not be interrupted because of the illness. 
    • For the parental leave hours, you are not building up holidays. Parental leave cannot be deducted from your holidays. 

    Important change: with effect from August 2, 2022, parents will receive payment from UWV during the first nine weeks of parental leave. Parents can take up to 26 weeks leave in total. The amount of the paid parental leave will be 70% of your daily wage during parental leave. Parents will have to use the nine weeks paid leave in the first year after the child is born. They can use the remaining 17 weeks as they wish, up to the child's eighth birthday. This leave will be unpaid. 

    For further leave around the birth, also for a partner, please see Pregnancy and maternity leave and Compassionate and special leave. 

    Information

    More general information can be found on the following websites:

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