Parental leave for Covid-19: this is how they work

The Decree Law of 13 March 2021 n. 30 containing "Urgent measures to deal with the spread of Covid-19 and support interventions for workers with minor children in distance learning or in quarantine" provides in art. 2, paragraphs 2 and 3, a new parental leave, compensated at 50% of salary, for parents with children affected by Covid-19, in contact quarantine or in cases where face-to-face teaching is suspended or day care centers are closed.

On the subject, INPS provides the first indications with its own message dated 25 March, n. 1276.

ADDRESSEES

The leave is due, only in cases where the work performance cannot be carried out in agile mode (smart working), to employees for cohabiting children under the age of 14, and to parents of children with serious disabilities, pursuant to law 104/92, enrolled in schools of all levels.

Parents with cohabiting children under the age of 14 without serious disabilities can take the leave alternately, i.e. not on the same days.

REQUEST FOR LEAVE

Employees in the private sector must submit the application for the new leave to INPS (pending the new telematic procedure also through their employer and subsequent regularization), while public employees must submit the application to their public administration employer, according to the indications provided by the same.

For parents of children between the ages of 14 and 16, there is the right to abstain from work without payment of salary or indemnity, and without acknowledgment of notional contribution, with the prohibition of dismissal and the right to keep the job ; in this case, the application for abstention from work must be presented to the employers only, and not to INPS.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE USE OF LEAVE

In order to take advantage of the 50% indemnified leave, the following requirements must be met:

1. the parent must have an existing employment relationship e

must perform a job for which the possibility of carrying out the same in agile mode is not envisaged;

• the child for whom the leave is taken must be under the age of 14, except in the case of children with severe disabilities:
• the parent and the child for whom the leave is taken must live together during the entire period of use of the leave, not necessarily for children with severe disabilities;
• one of the following conditions must exist in relation to the child for whom the leave is taken:
  • the Covid-19 infection;
    • contact quarantine (wherever it occurred) established by provision of the Prevention Department of the ASL responsible for the area;
    • the suspension of face-to-face teaching activities:
    • the closure of the day care center (in the foreseen cases).

DURATION OF LEAVE

The new leave for parents can be used for periods coinciding, in whole or in part, with those of Covid-19 infection, contact quarantine, suspension of teaching activities in the presence or closure of the child's day care centers , in the period from 13 March, the date of entry into force of the decree, and 30 June 2021.

Any total or partial periods of parental leave taken from 1 January to 12 March this past may be converted, without the need for cancellation, into the leave in question, only by submitting an online application for the new leave, as soon as INPS has adjusted the related IT procedure.

ALLOCATED SUMS

For these periods of abstention, an overall spending limit of 282,8 million euros has been set aside for the year 2021 in order to provide the workers concerned with an indemnity equal to 50 percent of their salary, with coverage of the notional contribution.