Elternzeit: Holiday Entitlement, Resigning at the End, and Grandparents

Yes, if your employer chooses to. For every full calendar month of Elternzeit, your employer may reduce your annual holiday by one twelfth (§ 17 Abs. 1 BEEG). This is calculated separately for each calendar year. Months that are only partly Elternzeit do not count.

The cut is not allowed if you work part-time for the same employer during Elternzeit.

If you received more holiday before Elternzeit than you are entitled to after the reduction, your employer may reduce the holiday you are due after Elternzeit by those extra days (§ 17 Abs. 4 BEEG).

Holiday you did not take before Elternzeit must be granted after it, in the current or the next holiday year (§ 17 Abs. 2 BEEG). The usual company rules about holiday expiring do not override this. If a second Elternzeit follows directly, the carry-over period is extended accordingly.

If your employment ends during Elternzeit, or does not continue after it, your employer must pay out the holiday you have not taken (§ 17 Abs. 3 BEEG).

You can resign so that your job ends exactly when Elternzeit ends. For this, a notice period of three months applies (§ 19 BEEG). Your written resignation has to reach your employer at least three months before Elternzeit ends.

If you miss that date, you cannot leave exactly at the end of Elternzeit. You can still resign with the normal notice period from the law, your collective agreement or your contract.

Your employer cannot dismiss you during Elternzeit except in rare cases approved by the authorities (§ 18 BEEG). That protection does not stop you from resigning yourself. Your Elterngeld does not depend on having a job and continues as long as you meet the conditions.

Employees can take Elternzeit for a grandchild who lives with them and whom they care for themselves, if one of the child's parents (§ 15 Abs. 1a BEEG):

• •is a minor, or
• •is in training that started before their 18th birthday and takes up their full working capacity.

Grandparents' Elternzeit is only possible for times when neither parent takes Elternzeit. Each grandparent can take up to three years. It ends when the condition ends, for example when the young parent turns 18 without being in such training, or the training ends.

Grandparents' Elternzeit does not come with Elterngeld. Grandparents and other relatives can only get Elterngeld if the parents cannot care for the child because of serious illness, severe disability or death (§ 1 Abs. 4 BEEG). See Serious illness or death in the family.