Paternity leave was extended in January of 2018. Fathers in the private sector have the right to take ten days of leave following the birth of their child or the adoption of a child under the age of sixteen. As in the past, the employer covers two days and the state reimburses the remaining eight days through the Ministry of Labour.
On Tuesday morning, Kersch announced the first statistics pertaining to the new paternity leave. In 2018, there were 4,494 requests, of which 2,751 were finalised at a total costs of €3.9 million. The minister estimated that the total cost for 2018 will reach €6 million, with an average cost of €1,451 per case.
The minister introduced conditions for requests: fathers must put in requests two months prior to the birth of their child and employers must request reimbursement five months after the leave took place at the latest. Kersch stated that 346 files were rejected as the request time limits had not been respected.
In contrast, Luxembourg's linguistic leave has been available over the past ten years. Both employees in the private sector and self-employed individuals are able to benefit from taking 200 hours of lessons to improve their Luxembourgish skills.
To date, 3,153 individuals have benefited from that measure - 3,064 employees and 89 self-employed individuals. The majority of those requesting linguistic leave are women (2,081) and mainly work in the health sector (1,117). As for where those requesting linguistic leave live, there is an equal balance between French residents (1,347) and Luxembourgish residents (1,239).
The government has also announced the intention to better examine linguistic leave to improve measures.
