Short-term and long-term care leave will be extended in the Netherlands after a new provision will enter into force. The provision stipulates that long-term care leave is no longer limited to taking care of someone who is life-threatening sick and that both short-term and long-term care leave is possible for a much wider group of people.
If the new provision will enter into force as it is stipulated at the moment as per the moment of entry into force of this new provision both the long-term care leave and the short-term care leave will be granted with regard to taking care of a sick person, who needs to be taken care of.
Currently, this applies merely to the short-term care leave. For the long-term care leave there is at the moment an additional requirement, namely that the person who is sick is life-threatening sick. This additional requirement will no longer apply as per the date of entry into force if the new provision will enter into force.
Care leave for a wider group of people
Care leave will become possible for a much wider group of people if the new bill enters into force. This is true for both the short-term care leave and the long-term care leave. At the moment, the short-term care leave and long-term care leave are merely granted in situations where the employee will take care of its own parent or child, its partner’s own child or a foster child. With regard to children there is currently an additional requirement for short-term care leave, which requires that the child should be living with the employee. A partner is defined as the spouse, registered partner or the person with whom the employee is living together without being married.
The new provision makes it possible for both the short-term care leave and the long-term care leave that it is also granted in case other family members, such as a grandchild, or someone else from the social environment of the employee without being a family member, such as friends and acquintances, need to be taken care of.