What needs to be done for parental leave?

Note: You can find information on recording parental leave in HR-Expert HERE.

When should maternity protection be recorded?

As soon as your employee announces her pregnancy and the expected due date, maternity protection must be recorded in the Absence Client as an absence with the absence reason "(37) Maternity protection" using the dates resulting from the due date.
(Under no circumstances should you enter a weekly schedule with zero hours, since this would lead to vacation aliquoting.)

When should parental leave be recorded?

In principle, parental leave should be recorded as soon as you receive the request for it, even if some time will pass before the leave begins.

How does the person provide the information?

The informal request can be submitted by the mother no later than the last day of the employment ban (maternity protection).
If the father wishes to be the first to take parental leave, he must inform the employer no later than eight weeks after the birth. Here too, the request is informal.
If the father wants to take leave at a later time, the employer must be notified at least three months before the desired start date.
The request must include above all the start and duration of the leave.

[Source: https://www.arbeiterkammer.at/beratung/berufundfamilie/Karenz/index.html]

What needs to be recorded?

Duration and start of the leave

What is a prerequisite for correct recording?

It is important that vacation entitlements are aliquoted.
Please therefore check whether the person requesting the leave has the corresponding entry "Yes" in the field "Aliquoting termination and parental leave" (person master record under Settings/Time tracking/Vacation settlement).
Please set it if this is not the case!

How is this data recorded in Personalwolke?

In principle, parental leave is a planned absence and can therefore be entered as a future absence.
The entry is made in the Absence Client.

• Open the person who wants to take leave
• Enter the start and end of the leave according to the request under Start/end of absence.
• Select (10) Parental leave as the absence reason, regardless of whether the request is made by the mother or the father.
• If there is an entry for another absence, such as vacation, seminar, etc., in the leave period, it is overwritten automatically.

Special case: municipal/federal employees
Here, in addition, the parameter "GS40 rule" or "Balance capping + GS40" must be deleted in the field "Settlement type" (person master record under Settings/Time tracking/Balance settlement).

Can the person on leave continue to access Personalwolke?

Even during the absence period, the person keeps their previous viewing and editing options as long as you do not set them to inactive (person master record, first tab).

Which weekly schedule applies during parental leave?

The existing weekly schedule remains valid. No change is therefore necessary.

If you already know now which weekly schedule will apply after the leave, you can of course enter a different weekly schedule with a start date in the future.

What happens at the end of the leave?

The leave ends automatically when the duration entered in the Absence Client expires.
Booking in as present or with a productive absence reason also ends the parental leave absence.

Which working time applies after the end of the leave?

The weekly schedule with zero target hours expires at the planned end of the leave.
After that, the previous weekly schedule should be used again, or a different weekly target working time is agreed.
Because the validity of weekly schedules for a person is set by entering a start date and an expiration date, a new agreement on future working time can also be recorded during the leave.

The parent wants to take part-time parental leave. What should I do?

The statutory entitlement to part-time parental leave is implemented through corresponding weekly schedules.

Example:
Ms. Hoffmann wants to take parental leave for 6 months after the employment ban ends and then 8 months of part-time parental leave at 15 hours per week. After that, she wants to work half-time while the father takes his leave.
Her maternity protection (employment ban) ends on 03/31/2025.
From 04/01/2025 to 09/30/2025, Ms. Hoffmann is on parental leave.
From 10/01/2025 to 05/31/2026, a weekly schedule with 15 hours per week is valid.
From 06/01/2026 until further notice, a weekly schedule with 20 hours per week applies.
(Here too: if you do not have suitable weekly schedules available, they must be created, see Creating new weekly schedules.)

Keywords: baby leave, maternity leave, parental leave, child year, father year, paternity year, parental time, part-time parental leave, part-time leave