Caregiver leave is a special 5-day leave granted to you, as an employee, to provide personal care or assistance to a member of your family or to a person living in your household.

The State pays 50 % of the cost of this leave, but only upon application by the employer to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy.

Who is concerned

Anyone with an employment contract is entitled to this special leave.

You are entitled to it as soon as you are employed by a company. You therefore do not need to comply with the 3-month waiting period that is in place in the context of statutory annual leave.

This special leave is intended to provide personal care or assistance to a member of your family or to any person who:

• lives in your household; and
  
• requires considerable care or assistance for serious medical reasons which:
  • reduce their capacity and autonomy, rendering them incapable of compensating for or coping autonomously with physical, cognitive or psychological impairments or health-related constraints or necessities; and
  • has been certified by a doctor.

For the purposes of this leave, the following are considered to be 'family members':

• son;
• daughter;
• mother;
• father;
• spouse; or
• partner.

If you have to be absent from work for any of the above reasons, your employer must grant you this extraordinary leave.

How to proceed

Employee's application for leave

If you are granted caregiver leave, you are obliged to notify your employer or a representative of your employer, personally or through an intermediary, orally or in writing, no later than the day of your absence.

On the 3^rd day of your absence at the latest, you must submit the following to your employer:

• a medical certificate stating that the legal conditions have been met; and
• any document that proves your family relationship with the person in need or that your respective places of residence coincide.

Employer's refund application

50 % of the cost of caregiver leave is covered by the State.

As an employer, you must send:

• within 6 months of the date on which the leave is taken, or of the last day of leave if your employee is on leave for several consecutive days;
• a request for reimbursement (see 'Forms / Online services'), to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy via MyGuichet.lu or the MyGuichet.lu mobile application.

This is a procedure with authentication that requires:

• a LuxTrust product (Token, Smartcard or Signing Stick); or
• an electronic identity card (eID).

In the application, you must provide:

• information about the company:
  • name, identification number and address of the company;
  • contact person;
  • bank details;
  • information on registration with an occupational health service;
• information about the employee:
  • surname and first name;
  • national identification number and profession;
  • address;
  • relationship with the person in need of help;
  • surname and name of the person in need of help;
  • information relating to the day(s) of leave;
  • the number of work hours per week.

Submitting an incomplete application interrupts the 6-month deadline, but delays the processing of the application.

50 % of the salary you pay for this leave will be covered by the State.

The elements taken into account to calculate the amount to be reimbursed are the basic salary, declared by the employer to the Joint Social Security Centre, plus the social security contributions payable by the employer relating to the period of caregiver leave.

The basic salary used to calculate the reimbursement is capped at five times the social minimum wage for unskilled workers. If the employee works part-time, the limit is adjusted in proportion to the number of hours worked.

Supporting documents

As an employer, you must enclose the following supporting documents with your application:

• the employee's certificate of affiliation with the Joint Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale – CCSS);
• the payslips for the period of caregiver leave and for the month preceding it;
• in the case of a person living in the same household with no family relationship to the employee : the employee's extended residence certificate.

Duration of caregiver leave

A maximum of 5 days of caregiver leave may be taken over a 12-month period of employment by the employee.

A day's caregiver leave corresponds to 8 hours (which can be split) for an employee whose normal working week is 40 hours. For employees whose working week is less than 40 hours, who work part-time or who have more than one employer, these hours of leave are set in proportion to the weekly working hours specified in the collective agreement or employment contract concerned.

Special cases

Applications that are not submitted via MyGuichet.lu will only be accepted if you can provide evidence that you do not have access to this means of transmission.

Applications should be sent to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and the Social and the Solidarity Economy on plain paper and accompanied by the supporting documents listed above. The applications must include information about the company and the employee.

Forms / Online services

Who to contact