Biological parents, non-birth mothers, adoptive parents and persons holding parental custody are entitled to two childcare days per child in each calendar year up to and including the calendar year in which the child turns seven. The child must be staying with the employee.
A childcare day corresponds to 7.4 hours for a full-time employee. If you are employed part-time, you will be granted a number of childcare days specified in hours proportionate to your employment rate.
The childcare days cannot be taken before the birth.
As a general rule, unused childcare days are lost at the end of the calendar year. This applies irrespective of whether the employee was unable to use the days owing to leave or long-term illness, for example.
However, childcare days for the calendar year in which the child is born/received can be carried over to the next calendar year. This applies regardless of when the child is born/received during the calendar year. Similarly, childcare days that an employee is prevented from taking because the employee in question has been on maternity/paternity leave or adoption leave for a whole calendar year can be carried over to the next year.
The employee is not entitled to take the childcare days in association with the leave. The employer should accommodate requests in this respect, however.
If an employee transfers to employment with another employer within the area covered by the agreement within a calendar year, unused childcare days are transferred to the new employment relationship. The new employment relationship does not have to follow directly after the other.
There are no notice rules for taking childcare days. A request to take childcare days should be made as early as possible, however.