Pregnancy, Maternity Protection and Parental Leave

© Universität Greifswald

Are you expecting a new addition to your family? Congratulations!

You have an exciting time ahead of you, and we would like to support you the best we can.

We have compiled all the important information for you on this page.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the relevant member of staff at the HR Department.

Pregnancy

In order to adequately protect the health of mother and child during pregnancy, after childbirth and during the breastfeeding period, to prevent risks and to counteract any potential disadvantages, please notify the Human Resources Department of your pregnancy as early as possible, especially if you work in particularly high-risk environments.

As soon as you have medical confirmation of your pregnancy, please inform the HR Department and, ideally, your line manager of your expected delivery date by providing appropriate documentation. The HR Department will arrange for a health risk assessment to be carried out and for notification to be sent to the supervisory authority and the Health and Safety Office. This ensures that, as an expectant mother, you will not be assigned work that is potentially hazardous or that puts you at increased risk of accidents (e.g. working with hazardous substances, lifting heavy loads, night shifts, etc.).

Typically, the respective member of staff at HR will contact you shortly after you have notified the University of your pregnancy to discuss the next steps.

We will assist you with all questions regarding maternity protection and parental leave and advise you individually on your personal situation (e.g. also on contract extension terms as determined by law for qualification positions in the case of prohibition of employment and parental leave).

In addition, you can also contact the Family Service of the University of Greifswald at any time.

Maternity protection

During maternity protection periods before and after childbirth, women with jobs are generally financially secured by

  1. a maternity allowance from their health insurance company and
  2. an allowance that their employer is required to pay.

Before and after the maternity protection period, you can receive Maternity Pay from your employer if you are not allowed to work, for example due to a medical prohibition of employment.

Employees who are not covered by statutory health insurance and who do not have their own statutory health insurance, for example women with private health insurance or in family health insurance contracts, receive maternity benefits from the Federal Office for Social Security.

Civil servants retain their full entitlement to their salary during the protection periods and the period of an individual prohibition of employment.

What impact does statutory maternity protection or the prohibition of employment have on the employment relationship?

In principle, prohibitions of employment/maternity protection periods are treated as equivalent to employment pursuant to the collective agreements and civil service law (prohibition of discrimination). Therefore, these periods have no negative impact on experience-based pay levels, holiday entitlements, probationary periods for career advancement, etc.

An existing fixed-term employment contract is generally not extended in the event of pregnancy. Employment contracts for members of academic staff with fixed-term contracts pursuant to § 2(1) WissZeitVG (German Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act) represent an exception to this rule. In such cases, with the consent of the employees, the duration of a fixed-term employment contract is extended by the periods in which no employment took place as a result of the prohibition of employment pursuant to §§ 3, 4, 6 and 8 of the Mutterschutzgesetz (Maternity Protection Act).

Parental leave

Parental leave is a (partially) unpaid break from working life for mothers and fathers who look after and raise their child themselves. Employees subject to the collective agreements can claim parental leave in accordance with the Bundeselterngeld- und Elternzeitgesetz - BEEG (Federal Act on Parental Allowance and Parental Leave) [de] and civil servants in accordance with the Elternzeitlandesverordnung - EltZLVO M-V (State Parental Leave Ordinance) [de].

During parental leave (without employment), you will not receive payment/salary.

Employees (including part-time employees) are entitled to parental leave if they live in the same household with a child and care for and raise that child themselves. They can also apply for parental leave for adopted or stepchildren. Under certain conditions, grandparents can also take parental leave.

Parents are legally entitled to parental leave until their child reaches the age of three if they care for their child themselves. If the three years have not been used up, up to a maximum of 24 months can be transferred to the period until the child reaches the age of eight. It is up to the parents to decide which of them takes parental leave. Both parents can take parental leave at the same time or one after the other. Each parent can divide their parental leave into no more than three separate periods. 

The mother's parental leave only begins after the end of the maternity protection period, 8 or 12 weeks (in the case of premature or multiple births) from the date of birth. This maternity protection period is counted towards the possible total duration of three years of parental leave. The second parent's parental leave can begin from the child’s date of birth.

The Form for Requesting Parental Leave [de] must generally be submitted to the HR Department seven weeks prior to the start of parental leave. Parental leave between the child's third and eighth birthdays must be applied for 13 weeks in advance.

Parental leave may be terminated early or extended in accordance with § 15(2) BEEG (for civil servants, § 4 EltZLVO M-V) if the employer agrees.

Since it is not always possible to end parental leave early, for example if a replacement has been hired, we recommend that you only apply for parental leave for the period that you are certain you will take.

A (later) extension of parental leave, for example in the event of a lack of childcare options, is usually easier to arrange.

Please feel free to seek advice on this matter from the HR Department and the Parental Allowance Office. 

It is possible to work part-time during parental leave; however, this may not exceed a maximum of 32 hours per week (currently only 30 hours per week for civil servants). Please note: income from part-time work during parental leave is taken into account when calculating parental allowance. If necessary, please consult the Parental Allowance Office on this matter in good time.

In principle, parental leave without employment is treated as equivalent to a leave of absence according to the collective agreements for the public sector and civil service law. The time it takes to complete individual experience levels does not continue during this period. Any probationary periods for career advancement are extended.

The holiday entitlement for the current year is reduced by one twelfth (2.5 days for a 5-day week) for each full calendar month of parental leave (without employment). If you have not taken all of the (holiday) leave to which you are entitled before the start of parental leave, the remaining leave will be granted to you after parental leave in the current or next year’s holiday entitlement. If you were granted too much holiday before parental leave, taking into account the reduction under § 17(1) BEEG or § 5(2) EltZLVO M-V, the holiday entitlement after the end of parental leave will be reduced by the number of days of holiday granted in excess.

An existing fixed-term employment contract is generally not extended when parental leave is taken. Employment contracts for members of academic staff with fixed-term contracts pursuant to § 2(1) WissZeitVG (German Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act) represent an exception to this rule. In this case, with the consent of the employee, the duration of a fixed-term employment relationship is extended by the periods in which no employment took place as a result of parental leave.

Parental allowance must be applied for at the Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales M-V (State Office for Health and Social Affairs) [de], which is the competent authority. If you have further questions about parental allowance, please contact the relevant parental allowance offices. Further information on this can also be found here: https://familienportal.de/familienportal/meta/languages/family-benefits.