What Is Palliative Care Leave?
Palliative care leave is a thematic leave scheme that allows an employee to fully or partially suspend their work in order to care for a person suffering from a terminal incurable illness.
Palliative care covers any form of assistance, including medical, social, administrative or psychological support, as well as the care provided to such persons.
Read more: “What is palliative care leave?”
How Can Palliative Care Leave Be Taken?
An employee may take palliative care leave for a period of one month. This period may be extended twice by one month. The maximum duration of the leave is therefore three months per patient.
The employee may either fully suspend their work or reduce their working time. The available options depend on their working schedule.
In practice, palliative care leave may be taken in one of the following forms:
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Full suspension
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Half-time reduction of working time
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One-fifth reduction of working time
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At present, palliative care leave must always be requested in one-month periods. The bill aims to make this rule more flexible.
What Is Expected to Change?
The bill seeks to provide greater flexibility in the way palliative care leave is taken. Without increasing the current maximum duration of three months per patient, it would allow employees, subject to their employer’s agreement, to take this leave by the week or in multiples of weeks, rather than only in one-month periods.
The objective is to enable employees to adapt their absence more easily to the actual needs of the person receiving care, particularly where that person’s medical condition evolves unpredictably or where the employee’s presence is only required during certain periods.
Leave Soon Available on a Weekly Basis…
The bill would allow a one-month leave period to be split into periods of one week or multiples of weeks. In that case, one month of suspension would correspond to four weeks of suspension.
This option would apply both to the full suspension of the employment contract and to a half-time or one-fifth reduction of working time. An employee could therefore take one week of leave, return to work afterwards, and subsequently request a new leave period of one or more weeks if the care situation justifies it.
The current system would not disappear: employees would still be able to take leave in one-month periods.
… Subject to the Employer’s Agreement
The leave could only be split into weekly periods with the employer’s agreement. Employees would therefore not be able to impose this arrangement unilaterally.
How Must the Employee Submit Their Request to the Employer?
When an employee wishes to take palliative care leave, they must provide their employer with a certificate issued by the attending physician of the person requiring palliative care. This document confirms that the employee has declared their willingness to provide palliative care.
If the leave is extended, the employee must submit a new certificate to the employer.
The leave normally begins on the first day of the week following the week in which the certificate was submitted. However, with the employer’s agreement, the leave may start earlier. In practice, if the employee submits the certificate on a Wednesday, the leave will normally start on the following Monday, unless the employer agrees that it can start sooner or immediately.
Read more: “How must the employee submit their request to the employer?”
Is the Employee Remunerated During This Leave?
As an employer, you are not required to pay remuneration to your employee during palliative care leave. Provided certain formalities are complied with, the employee may be entitled to an interruption allowance paid by the National Employment Office (NEO).
Entry into Force?
In principle, the new rules would enter into force 10 days after publication of the law in the Belgian Official Gazette. As the law has not yet been published, the date of entry into force is not yet known.
What Does Securex Do for You?
Do you still have questions about this topic? Your Legal Advisor will be happy to help. Contact them by e-mail at myHR@securex.be.
Source
- Bill aimed at making the bereavement leave period more flexible in the event of scheduled euthanasia and making palliative care leave more flexible, DOC 56 1338/006 et DOC 56 1338/010
