What Should Employers Expect In Luxembourg In 2020?

This article sets out proposed changes to the law in Luxembourg that will affect entitlement to parental leave and leave for family reasons and the terms of workplace internships for school pupils and university students.

Update on the latest important bills and proposed laws:

Changes to the right to leave for family reasons

Family leave for grandparents

A proposed law plans to extend leave for family reasons to include grandparents (Proposed law no. 7436 extending leave for family reasons to include grandparents and modifying the Labour Law. The Proposed law was submitted on 25 April 2019).

Changes to conditions for family leave for sickness of an older child

The Labour Code currently provides that employees responsible for a child aged between 13 until their 18th birthday can only claim leave for family reasons for a sick child if the child has been hospitalised. A new Bill plans to add an exception to this requirement for hospitalisation if the child, from the age of 13:

receives a special supplementary allowance ('allocation spéciale supplémentaire') under article 274 of the Social Security Code; or is suffering from an exceptionally serious illness or impairment, as defined in the Grand Ducal regulation specified in article L. 234-52 of the Labour Code, and confirmed by the child's doctor. In these two scenarios, a parent who is an employee would be able to claim these days' leave for family reasons, even if their child was not hospitalised.

In addition, the Bill allows both parents to take leave for family reasons at the same time in both the cases described above.

(Bill no. 7489 modifying articles L. 234-51, L. 234-52, L. 551-2 and L. 552-1 of the Labour Code. The Bill was submitted on 10 October 2019.)

Extending parental leave and making it more flexible

A proposed law plans on the one hand to make the provisions relating to parental leave more flexible, and on the other, to extend the granting of parental leave to include grandparents.

The main purpose of the proposed law is to set a maximum period that each parent can take as parental leave, specifically, six months if they are employed full time or twelve months if they work part time or a number of days on a pro rata basis based on the actual time worked if less than half the normal maximum working time.

The main other new points are as follows:

Parental leave can be taken until the child in question reaches the age of 12. The right to parental leave will no longer be lost when...