Extension of the leave for palliative care and time-credit 'with motive'

1. Leave for palliative care

The duration of the leave for palliative care is fixed at 1 month per person.

Since 1 February 2017, this period may be extended twice (instead of once) by an additional month. So the worker is now entitled to maximum 3 months of leave for palliative care per person (instead of maximum two months).

2. Time-credit ‘with motive’

The act on feasible and flexible work provides that the time-credit ‘with motive’ can be extended to 51 months for reasons of ‘care’. However, this extension is already laid down in the CBA No. 103ter concluded within the National Labour Council. Consequently, the time-credit provisions laid down by this act will never come into force.

More specifically, what does the CBA No. 103ter say?

The worker is entitled to maximum 51 months of time-credit ‘with motive’ for reasons of ‘care’, i.e. to:

• take care of a child younger than 8 years,
• provide palliative care,
• assist or provide care to a seriously ill family member,
• take care of a handicapped child younger than 21 years,
• assist or provide care to his seriously ill minor child or to a seriously ill minor child considered as a family member.

Note that the CBA No. 103ter also contains other changes to the rules with regard to time-credit (see the infoflash of 2 January 2017), of which the abolition of the time-credit ‘without motive’ is the most important.

When will the CBA No. 103ter come into force?

The CBA No. 103ter will enter into force on the date on which the royal decree (amending the royal decree of 12 December 2001) that aligns the rules with regard to career break allowance entitlement with those with regard to time-credit entitlement (such as provided by the CBA No. 103 as amended by the CBA No. 103ter) and no later than 1 April 2017.