Law Amending Certain Paid Leaves

A law aiming at reforming leave for family reasons and certain extraordinary paid leave was published in the official gazette (Mémorial A) on 18 December 2017 (the "Law").

This Law will enter into force on 1 January 2018.

The changes can be summarised as follows:

Repeal of special leave before enrolment for military service

The Law repeals the special leave of one day before enrolment for military services as obligatory military service in Luxembourg no longer exists.

Paternity leave and fostering leave

The Law aims to extend paternity leave and leave for fostering a child under 16 years for adoption purposes (except in the case where adoption leave is taken), which is currently set at two days, to ten days.

The leave may be split and must be taken within two months following the birth or the welcoming of the child (in case of fostering leave). The leave is fixed, in principle, according to the employee's preferences, provided that it does not compromise business needs. If the employer and the employee do not agree on when the leave is to be taken, the leave must be taken immediately after the birth or the welcoming of the child without being split.

The employee must inform the employer in writing two months in advance of the predicted date on which he/she intends to take the leave. This information must be accompanied by a copy of a medical certificate attesting to the presumed date of childbirth or by a document attesting to the date on which the child will be welcomed.

In case of failure to notify the employer within the time limit, the employer may decide to reduce the leave to two days.

The salary paid during the first two days of leave is borne by the employer. The salary paid during the following days will be reimbursed to the employer by the State. The reimbursement is limited to five times the minimum social salary for unqualified workers.

Leave in the event of marriage or declaration of partnership of a child

Currently, employees are entitled to two days of paid leave in the event of marriage or declaration of partnership of their child.

The Law aims to reduce the paid leave to one day which will be due only in the event of marriage of the child. Hence, employees will no longer be entitled to paid leave in the event of declaration of partnership of their child.

Leave for moving house

Currently, employees are entitled to two days of paid leave for moving house.

The Law does not change the number of days but provides that the leave...