Care leave: Your rights and advice

Questioner

My wife needs to have her tonsils removed, the specialist says she is not allowed to be alone for 2 days because of post-operative bleeding. I assume I am entitled to 2 days short-term care leave? It is also stated on the internet that there may be compensation with statutory leave/vacation days, but nothing about this is described in the employer's company book, so I assume that I am entitled to 2 days of short-term care leave?

Lawyer

There are conditions attached to short-term care leave. The most important one is that the care is necessary and cannot be provided by someone else. It seems that you meet these conditions. The collective labor agreement or personnel regulations may state that care leave is offset against statutory vacation days. You have statutory vacation days but there is nothing about offset in the company book. If there is a collective labor agreement, you should also look into that. I wish your wife much strength and hope that everything will turn out well for her

Questioner

Dear Robert, We don't have a collective labor agreement. My employer maintains his position that I have to give up 2 days of leave for this, even though there is no mention of this in the company book. What can I do about this? Hiring a lawyer will probably cost me more than those 2 days would possibly yield.

Lawyer

You do not have to accept this. Hiring a lawyer may be more expensive. But I am not a lawyer and can send a letter to your employer on your behalf for a relatively small fee. That often helps. But you do run the risk that your employer will not be happy with this and that you will have other problems as a result. It is up to you whether or not to take this risk. If there is anything I can do for you please feel free to contact me.