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Maternity leave, or what you should know about it? Motherhood is not an obstacle to a successful career. What do you need to know when going on maternity leave? Getting maternity leave

Maternity leave is time away from work due to the need to care for a child. People go on vacation based on their own application addressed to the head of the organization. The legislation provides for the duration of maternity leave until the child reaches 3 years of age.

In current legislation Russian Federation concept is not used « maternity leave» . This expression is only a common slang name in our country for two types of leave, following each other, usually without interruption, and issued separately from each other: maternity leave - issued in the form of a period of incapacity for work (sick leave) of a set duration, and parental leave - provided for a longer period (up to the child reaching the age of 3 years) without interruption length of service and work experience in the specialty.

General information

The right to receive maternity leave recorded in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation in Art. 255, . This right is reserved for all working women, including military women, the unemployed, students officially recognized as unemployed or registered at the labor exchange, as well as women who work in military departments as civilian personnel.

Attention

Paid for the period of maternity leave social security benefit, the size of which is equal to 100% of the average earnings of the expectant mother for the previous 2 full years.

Sample application for maternity leave during pregnancy and childbirth

An application regarding the need to go on maternity leave is absolutely no different from any other application, and also has a standard structure:

  • “header” (upper right corner of the sheet), which indicates the name of the organization, surname, first name, and patronymic of its leader, and in the same corner below the surname, initials, and position of the applicant must be indicated;
  • the name of the document, namely, “statement”, which is written without quotation marks in the middle of the sheet below the “header”;
  • main text, which can be presented in any format; the main thing is that the applicant is able to write down a request for the vacation she needs, its temporary boundaries and state a request for the appointment of one or another benefit;
  • Listed below are all additional documents attached to the application (as a rule, this is the original sick leave certificate issued by the medical institution and the original certificate issued by antenatal clinic, which confirms the state of pregnancy);
  • in the lower right corner the applicant puts the date of filing the document, as well as her own signature.

After submitting the application and all necessary documents, the employer issues order for maternity leave, a sample of which is given below.

Last modified: January 2020

The concept of “maternity leave” is not legal, but everyday. No law contains such a term. It means a woman’s temporary failure to fulfill her work duties due to her pregnancy and childbirth. During maternity leave, the expectant and established mother not only does not work, but also receives certain cash payments. Readers of the article will have to figure out how long a woman can remain on maternity leave, what financial support she is promised by law, and how to arrange everything correctly.

The Labor Code gives women the right to maternity leave, although it calls it differently. According to the law, “maternity leave” is called maternity leave, or abbreviated as Maternity Leave (Article 255 of the Labor Code). For a standard, uncomplicated birth of one baby, it is 140 days. The current expression “going on maternity leave” means that a woman stops working. She takes leave to prepare for the birth of her baby and provide him with care in the first months of life.

Then, at the request of the mother, the maternity leave smoothly turns into maternity leave - Article 256 of the Labor Code. These vacations have their own characteristics. A woman goes on maternity leave based on her own application and sick leave, and its beginning is determined neither by her nor by the employer, but by a gynecologist. The doctor counts it from the date of pregnancy. For maternity leave, an application from the mother who wishes to extend contact with the baby after the end of maternity leave is sufficient.

Only the expectant mother of a child can go on B&R leave. Previously, maternity leave was only granted to her. However, since 2007, his grandparents, as well as other relatives. This decision is usually made if the mother of a newborn occupies a highly paid position, and, having gone to work, will be able to better take care of the financial well-being of the family.

The law does not distinguish between adopted and natural children. The adoptive mother also has the right to maternity leave if she takes a very young baby into the family. It starts from the date of official adoption of the child and continues until the 70th day of his life. Either the child can go on parental leave foster mother, or his adoptive father. In this case, other relatives are not granted this right.

Deadline for a female employee to go on maternity leave

How many days before the expected birth of a child a woman has the right to go on maternity leave depends on the following conditions:

  • multiple pregnancy or not;
  • in which area does the expectant mother live?

The table shows how these circumstances affect the duration of the prenatal part of the leave under the BiR.

Certain circumstances also influence the duration of the postpartum period of maternity leave.

In all cases, calendar days are meant, not working days.

As already noted, the start of maternity leave is determined by the doctor. To do this, he first determines the first day of pregnancy, and then adds 210 days (30 weeks) to it. The total duration of bearing a child is 280 calendar days or 40 weeks. The expectant mother in labor is issued.

After the 30th week, the woman receives a sick leave certificate, upon presentation of which she has the right to go on maternity leave. Simple mathematical calculations (210/30) show that the employee has the right to take leave under the Labor and Employment Regulations from the end of the 7th month of pregnancy.

Sick leave is issued immediately for the entire period of maternity leave, taking into account the presence or absence of special circumstances. That is, in a standard situation, its duration will be 140 days. The certificate of incapacity for work will have to be extended only in unforeseen cases that affected the postpartum period of leave under the BiR. For example, a woman unexpectedly gave birth to two children, or the birth was complicated.

Doctors can only roughly determine the baby's birthday. In reality, childbirth can occur either earlier or later than expected. But this will not reduce or increase the total duration of maternity leave. Only its prenatal and postnatal parts are corrected. In particular, if the child was born not 70, but 50 days after the start of the vacation, then after this event the woman has the right to rest for another 90 days.

Procedure for registration of maternity leave

The employee does not coordinate the beginning and end of maternity leave with her superiors, but only notifies management about it.

But first, at the 30th week of the “interesting situation,” she visits the antenatal clinic, where the doctor issues her sick leave from a certain day. If it is already known that the pregnancy is multiple, this happens 2 weeks earlier.

Armed with a certificate of incapacity for work, the employee writes a statement addressed to the manager, in which she asks to be granted leave for employment and labor (see sample document). In it she also asks to accrue to her cash benefit for pregnancy and childbirth and for registration at the clinic in the early stages.

Otherwise, the application is drawn up in the usual form and contains standard details:

  • to whom it is addressed (full name and position of the head of the company);
  • by whom it was written (full name and position of the employee);
  • name of the paper being fed;
  • an indication of the period of maternity leave and a request to provide it;
  • list of applications;
  • date of writing;
  • employee's signature.

The completed application for maternity leave should be accompanied by:

  • sick leave itself;
  • photocopy of the Russian civil passport;
  • a certificate confirming that the expectant mother registered with the antenatal clinic in a timely manner;
  • card or bank account details for transferring payments due to her (if the woman does not intend to receive them personally, through the accounting department’s cash desk).

Based on the submitted application, the personnel service of the enterprise issues a corresponding order - “On granting leave ...”, which indicates its start date. The maternity leaver is introduced to him, which she confirms with her own signature.

Procedural and medical “tricks”

Pregnant workers are in different life circumstances. Some women strive to stay out of the work process for as long as possible. Others, on the contrary, try to go on maternity leave early. This depends on the health of the expectant mother, her level of material security, support from loved ones (or lack thereof).

Both lazy people and workaholics have some room for maneuver.

The first thing that a pregnant worker can influence is the establishment of the day the pregnancy began, from which the date of the expected birth of the child is calculated, and, therefore, the time of her going on maternity leave. There are two ways to determine when a woman becomes pregnant:

  • obstetric - from the day of her last menstruation;
  • gestational – according to the ultrasound picture.

The difference in determining the gestational age using these methods is 14 days. The obstetric method is used by employees who want to take leave under B&R as early as possible, since it is this method that diagnoses pregnancy two weeks earlier than the gestational method. The latter is resorted to by female workers who want to work longer.

For those who are in no hurry to go on maternity leave, there are other tricks that allow you to extend your workday as much as possible. Having determined the start date of pregnancy in one way or another, working women will no longer be able to adjust the date of opening of sick leave - doctors will issue a certificate of incapacity for work exactly 70 (84, 90) days before the planned birth.

However, the employee is not required to submit sick leave to the accounting department on the day it opens. And until the document is submitted, she has the right to continue working and receiving wages. But she is not accrued benefits for the period she holds sick leave. A woman will begin to receive it only after she goes on maternity leave, submits a certificate of incapacity for work and writes a statement.

Sometimes, in agreement with management, the issue is resolved differently: the woman gives her sick leave to her employer, applies for leave under the Labor and Employment Regulations, receives benefits, but in reality continues to work. In such a situation, instead of a salary, she is given a bonus, as if for past merits.

FAQ

During maternity leave, employees are faced with questions, the answers to which are not always obvious to people who do not understand the legal intricacies. Here are just a few of these collisions.

Sick leave before and during maternity leave

Pregnancy for many women is a difficult ordeal associated with a sharp deterioration in health. Some of them lose their ability to labor activity long before the start of maternity leave. In this case, they have the right to issue a regular certificate of incapacity for work without waiting for the 30th week of pregnancy. In addition, a pregnant employee may contract a disease that is not related to her position - a cold, poisoning, etc. Like any other employee, if she gets sick, she has the right to stay at home if the doctor considers it possible to issue her a sick leave.

Sometimes a woman gets sick during maternity leave. And then she also has the right to take sick leave. He will increase the vacation by the number of days indicated on the certificate of incapacity for work. However, this is not a big reason for joy, since days added to maternity leave will not be paid. If the employee is satisfied with this fact, she needs to present sick leave to the personnel department or accounting department.

From maternity leave to maternity leave: how to write an application

In this case, “maternity leave” is used in a broader sense and includes not only labor and employment leave, but also parental leave. If the employee wishes, it can last until the child is three years old. Often, over such a long period, a woman manages to become pregnant again.

In such a situation, the vacationer needs to decide whether she will go to work before the second maternity leave, or whether it will become a continuous continuation of the first. If a woman interrupts maternity leave and, while pregnant, begins to perform her work duties, then after the allotted time (30 weeks from the beginning of pregnancy) she acts according to the usual scheme: she takes sick leave, writes a statement and goes on maternity leave. The content of the paper she submitted is no different from what it was during her first pregnancy.

It’s another matter if a woman is going without leaving maternity leave. Then, having issued a certificate of incapacity for work within the required period, she writes a statement where she asks to interrupt the current vacation and provide her with leave under the BiR for the specified (in words) period. The application must be accompanied by a sick leave certificate issued at the consultation.

Is leave allowed during maternity leave?

Being on maternity leave is taken into account when calculating the time when a woman has the right to take annual paid leave (Article 121 Labor Code). During her rest days, she earns seniority and accrues vacation days. During a 140-day maternity leave, there will be about 11 of them. If a woman, before her leave under the BiR, did not take the leave she was entitled to for previously worked days, she can take it after the maternity leave, adding the accumulated days.

How is maternity leave paid?

During the BiR leave, the employee receives a benefit equal to 100 percent of the average earnings (Article 11 of the Federal Law No. 255 of December 29, 2006). It is calculated for the last two years. The legislation establishes lower and upper limits for this payment.

For 2018 the following values ​​apply:

      • from January 2018 – 43,674 rubles;
      • from May 2018 – 51,380 rubles;

    – minimum maternity benefit for a singleton, uncomplicated pregnancy (maximum - 282,493.4 rubles);

  • 60,522.18 rubles - the minimum amount of maternity benefits if the pregnancy is multiple (maximum amount - 391,455.14 rubles);
  • 48,667.32 rubles - minimum maternity benefits for complex childbirth (maximum - 314,778.36 rubles).

In 2018, the Government, from January 1, as well as May 1, in connection with the increase in the minimum wage in Russia, is raising the upper limit of maternity benefits. She will leave 61,375 rubles monthly. But in order to qualify for the maximum payment, you must have a fairly decent income - at least 63 thousand rubles per month.

The benefit must be assigned within 10 days from the date the employee submits the relevant application.

If a pregnant woman does not work

If the expectant mother does not have an official job, then she will have to apply for benefits to the social security authorities (at her place of residence). In this case, she can count on the following payments from the state:

  • RUB 613.14 – paid if a pregnant woman is registered with early(women who study or serve receive it, otherwise unemployed ladies do not receive it);
  • RUB 16,350.33 – one-time benefit for the birth of a baby;
  • monthly child care benefits:
    • 3120 rub. – if he is the first;
    • 6131 rub. – if the baby is the second or subsequent.

Monthly payments in the specified amount unemployed mom receives until the child turns 1.5 years old.

Still have questions? Ask! Our lawyers are ready to answer all your questions, as well as provide qualified assistance in preparing applications to various authorities.

Hello! In this article we will talk about the concept of a maternity leave and its design. .

Today you will learn:

  1. How and when maternity leave is processed;
  2. What documentation is collected for this;
  3. How can you increase your maternity leave time?

Waiting for the birth of a baby is an exciting event for every family. All relatives usually prepare for it. Information on how to properly arrange maternity leave is important both for the new mother herself and for managers. We'll talk about this today.

Concept of maternity leave

In fact, there are 2 periods of time that are called maternity periods:

  • The period to be paid is before the child is born and after;

There is no term “maternity leave” in its legal sense. This definition refers to maternity leave and then maternity leave.

Periodicity

Since vacation is divided into several types, its periods are also different. Let's look at this in more detail.

  • Maternity leave. Before the date of birth, it is provided for 70 calendar days and for the same amount after them. If the birth was complicated: 70 days before the date of birth and 86 after it, if the pregnancy is multiple, then 84 days before the date of birth and 110 after it;
  • Until the baby reaches one and a half years and three years.

Maternity leave period

Most often, the employee notifies the employer about her going on maternity leave much earlier than the need to start preparing documents. Nowadays, most people register for up to 12 weeks; the antenatal clinic issues a special certificate about this. The woman gives this certificate to the employer.

As for the timing of care, this is 28/30 weeks of pregnancy. At the same time, a corresponding statement is written.

Rules and deadlines for registration

First, the date from which maternity leave will begin and when it will end is determined. It begins from the date when the doctor issues the employee a certificate of incapacity for work.

To find out its end date, you need to add 140 to the first day that is a non-working day. The date that follows after the end of this time will be the start date of parental leave.

If a woman is expecting several babies, then the sick leave will be issued to her fourteen days earlier, and closed after 194 days.

Childbirth with complications is a special situation. In this case, the woman is given additional sick leave for a period of 16 days. It can be provided immediately after the required 140 days are over.

The employer does not have the right to, and providing leave is his responsibility.

Documents for maternity leave

The employee submits the completed package of documentation to the personnel department of her organization. Let's consider and give brief description this list.

A completed certificate of incapacity for work.

The date from which the employee goes on maternity leave must also be the date from which sick leave is opened.

Statement.

Be sure to make sure that it is filled out correctly: indicating the name of the organization, with the surname and initials of the employee herself.

She must indicate that she is asking for maternity leave and benefits. You should also check the correct date of maternity leave and return to work date.

Woman's passport.

No comments are needed here: it must be provided.

A certificate confirming income for the 2 years preceding the decree.

If a woman worked in another organization, then the certificate should be taken from there. If in force various reasons It is impossible to obtain the data; a request is made to the Pension Fund. It takes about 10 days to process, so plan accordingly.

When all the documentation has been collected, an order is issued in a special form. As soon as the order is signed, the employee has the right not to fulfill her duties.

Is it possible to go on vacation before maternity leave?

It happens that to the expectant mother It becomes physically difficult to work before the official date of maternity leave. For such situations, the law provides that the employer can provide the employee with the next annual salary. Its duration is the standard 28 days.

A woman can use her right to such leave only if during the period worked there are days of unused leave. If the vacation was taken in advance, and the employee quit before leaving maternity leave, her vacation pay will be withheld.

Is it possible to work and stay in DO

If a woman wants to work at this time, she has this right. But then sick leave days will be reduced, as will maternity benefits. For those days of sick leave that are not used, the employee will be paid only the required amount of salary.

There are, although rarely, managers who pay both salaries and maternity benefits in full. But this is rare, although you can defend your right to this through the courts.

Registration of leave for husband

It is also worth following the advice of experts and deciding in advance who will perform the duties of an employee who has gone on maternity leave. Do not forget about the correct execution of all documentation and the necessary order.

Pregnancy is a wonderful time in a woman’s life, but it is also a headache for her employer. The manager must know how to calculate and pay maternity benefits, within what time frame the transfer must be made, and what affects the amount of the benefit. Let's take a closer look at maternity leave, and also look at the features of calculating maternity benefits and the procedure for transferring them.

In ordinary life, maternity leave, as a rule, refers to the entire period while a woman is freed from work in order to bear, give birth to, and care for a child until he is 3 years old. But the legislation divided this concept into 2 segments: (basis - Article 255 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) and (basis - Article 256 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Whereas monthly social payment child care consistently amounts to 40% of average earnings; the calculation of maternity benefits has its own characteristics.

Calculation of maternity payments

To correctly calculate maternity payments, let’s turn to the procedure established by law. To begin with, we note that the period for which the one-time maternity benefit should be calculated is 140 days, with multiple pregnancy– 194 days, and in case of difficult labor – 156 days. All this is reflected in Art. 10 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ. It also says that in the case when a woman is on leave to care for an already born child and is about to give birth to another, she needs to choose only one of the two benefits provided.

The period for which the lump sum maternity benefit should be calculated is 140 days.

Maternity benefits are paid to a woman in the amount of 100% of her salary. The length of her official work may have some influence. If it is less than six months, then the rate of the minimum wage - minimum wage (in 2018 it is 9,489 rubles) is taken as an indicator of average monthly earnings; coefficients are also taken into account.

The formula for the general definition of maternity pay includes 3 values:

  1. The employee’s income for the previous 2 years (if, for example, the calculation is made in 2018, then 2016 and 2017 are taken).
  2. The number of days in this period (730 or 731 days if the year was a leap year).
  3. The number of maternity days required for calculation (140, 156, 184).

Rules for calculating benefits

There are certain restrictions and rules for calculating benefits. According to clause 3.2 of Art. 14 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ, the annual average earnings of an employee going on maternity leave cannot be higher than the maximum base amount for calculating insurance premiums. In 2018, this amount is set at 815,000 rubles, but you need to calculate the amount of maternity benefits based on the previous 2 years, so you need to know their limit.

In 2017, the maximum base for calculating insurance premiums was 755,000 rubles, and in 2016 – 718,000 rubles. When calculating maternity benefits in 2018, you must take these amounts into account.

Maximum benefit amount: (755,000 + 718,000) / 730 × 140 = 282,493 rubles 15 kopecks. Minimum size benefits in 2018: (7500 × 12 × 2) / 730 × 140 = 43,675 rubles 40 kopecks.

The maternity leave calculator can be programmed at the enterprise independently (for example, in Microsoft Excel) or the payments can be determined manually.

Income for the previous 2 years does not include sick leave, previous maternity leave, as well as payments made for any other periods during which statutory insurance premiums were not charged on income received. If it so happens that the employee was on maternity leave during the previous 2 years required for calculation, then she can completely replace one or both calculation years with previous years. This way she can increase the benefit amount. That is, in this case, she has the right to choose the years for which her maternity leave is calculated.

As mentioned above, the employee’s length of service may affect the amount of maternity benefits. What should an employer do if his employee has 1 year of experience? The rule is the same for all officially employed women, so the calculation period will also be the previous 2 calendar years. In this case, the actual time worked, which falls on the previous calendar year, is taken in the amount of 100% of average earnings (say, the last 5 months of that year), for the remaining months (in our example there are 19) earnings are set at the minimum wage.

The employee's length of service may affect the amount of maternity benefits. The rule is the same for all officially employed women.

At the same time, the maternity calendar is different for each employee, but the calculation of the benefit itself is carried out according to the same formula.

How are maternity benefits calculated?

As soon as the pregnancy reaches 30 weeks, the gynecologist at the antenatal clinic issues a sick leave certificate. It indicates the days for which maternity leave is paid.

The employee must provide the following documents to the accounting department or human resources department:

  1. Certificate of incapacity for work for pregnancy and childbirth.
  2. A certificate of early registration, if relevant (required for an additional lump sum payment in favor of a pregnant employee).
  3. Your own statement in free form. You can see a sample.
  4. A certificate of actual earnings received for the previous 2 years in the form established by Order of the Ministry of Labor No. 182n. It is provided if the employee has worked in another company over the past 2 years.

Maternity sick leave is paid in accordance with the general procedure, according to Art. 15 of Federal Law No. 255-FZ. Within 10 days from the date of receipt of documents from the employee, benefits are calculated and accrued, and payment is made on the next day of payment of wages. The payment deadline must be observed - for violation by the employer, according to Art. 236 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, is obliged to pay a penalty. The surcharge for late payments is 1/300 of the established Central Bank refinancing rate for each day overdue.

The employer assigns and pays maternity benefits. The state compensates the funds paid by the employer, as stated in Art. 4 of Federal Law No. 81-FZ. Foundation staff social insurance transfer these funds within 10 days to the employer’s account. By the way, maternity benefits are taxed (Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Maternity leave benefits are not taxed.

Additional payments

In addition to basic sick leave pay, employees going on maternity leave are entitled to additional payments:

1. One-time payment.

It is fixed, set taking into account the annual indexation and until February 1, 2017 it amounts to 15,382 rubles 17 kopecks. A one-time payment is made to only one parent. To receive it, you must provide the employer with the child’s birth certificate, an application from the parent applying for the payment, and a certificate stating that the other parent has not received this payment and does not plan to.

2. Payment for early registration at the antenatal clinic.

The 12th week of pregnancy is the milestone before which you must register in order to receive this payment. Until February 1, 2017, it is 576 rubles 83 kopecks and is paid simultaneously with maternity benefits. To receive a one-time payment, the employee must provide the accounting department with a corresponding certificate from the antenatal clinic.

The basic benefit and additional payments are also due if a woman, being pregnant after 30 weeks, continues to work and maintains her salary. However, as soon as maternity leave turns into parental leave, social monthly allowance will be paid only if the woman is part-time or works at home ().

If the employee continues to work after 30 weeks and receives wages, she must still be paid benefits.

Some formalities

Before going on vacation, immediately after it, or after 3 years have passed since the birth of the child, the employee has the right to go on vacation if she wishes, and her work experience does not affect the situation (). Some women take such leave after the paid 140 days have passed because they receive a little more money than child care benefits, thereby stabilizing their financial situation a little.

A pregnant woman or a woman caring for a child under 3 years of age is not allowed. Based on Art. 261 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, dismissal is possible only in the case of an agreement with a pregnant woman, but with its extension until the moment of childbirth or on her initiative at any time. If termination of the employment contract does occur, the woman is entitled to calculated compensation. She has the right to receive money for the next vacation of the previous period.

Maternity payments are due to every officially employed woman who is going to become a mother. They amount to 100% of her average earnings for the previous 2 years. The manager must pay her benefits, but not from his own pocket, but from the Social Insurance Fund. Any delay in payments is “punishable” by law, so you should be careful in fulfilling your duties.

What is maternity leave

The Labor Code does not know such a thing as maternity leave. This is a common expression. The legislation operates under two concepts: maternity leave and parental leave. These periods of legal absence from work constitute maternity leave.

How long does maternity leave last? Maternity leave, in accordance with labor legislation, represents a certain time period (2 months) before childbirth and approximately the same amount after the birth of a child. This leave is documented with a sick leave certificate, which, like any sick leave, is paid at the place of work. Only the woman herself who is preparing to give birth to a child can take leave related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Parental leave is a period of absence from work due to the need to care for a younger child. preschool age. People go on parental leave based on their own application addressed to the head of the organization. Not only the child’s mother, but also the father, and, if necessary, other relatives who actually care for the child can go on such leave.

How many days does maternity leave last?

Women most often go on sick leave during pregnancy at 30 weeks. Sometimes such leave occurs at 28 weeks if the birth of several children is predicted, and at 27 weeks if the pregnant woman lives in an environmentally unfavorable area. The law classifies as such areas areas that were exposed to radiation after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and at the Mayak production association. In Art. 255 of the Labor Code provides for the following duration of leave in connection with pregnancy and childbirth:

  • 140 days (70 days before the expected date of birth and 70 days after) for uncomplicated pregnancy;
  • 194 days (84 days before the birth of the child and 110 after), if several children are expected to be born;
  • 156 days if the birth was complicated.

However, an analysis of the legislation in force in 2017-2018 allows us to determine several more time periods for the duration of leave related to pregnancy and the birth of a baby.

  1. If the birth of a child occurred before 30 (28 or 27) weeks, when they go on maternity leave, then the leave begins from the day the baby is born and lasts 156 days.
  2. If the expectant mother lives in an area contaminated by radiation, then her maternity leave will be 160 days.

Leave related to pregnancy and childbirth is given immediately for the entire period and is not divided into parts.

Don't know your rights?

Duration of parental leave

A mother who has been on maternity leave can take maternity leave immediately after her sick leave ends, because she cannot be on sick leave and on leave at the same time. It is important to know that leave is not granted automatically and to use it you need to write a corresponding application at work.

Also, upon application, leave related to caring for the baby can be taken by any other family member if the mother cannot care for the child.

The legislation provides for the duration of maternity leave until the child reaches 3 years of age. At the same time, on federal level Only the first 1.5 years of vacation are paid. Payment for time spent caring for a child up to 3 years of age is provided in some regions of the country, but, as a rule, these are benefits for third and subsequent children in low-income families.

The popular opinion that you can remain on parental leave for up to 6 years if, for example, the child is often sick, or even until 14 years if the child is disabled, is wrong. To care for disabled children, the law provides for 4 additional paid days off per month (Article 262 of the Labor Code). Labor legislation also provides for the possibility of including in the collective agreement of an organization the right of certain categories of citizens with children to receive, upon personal application, up to 14 days of leave without pay (Article 263 of the Labor Code). But these preferences have nothing to do with maternity leave.

Options to extend or reduce maternity leave

Thus, from the above it is clear that the Labor Code provides maternity leave from 30 (28, 27) weeks of pregnancy. Its maximum duration is until the child is 3 years old. However, life situations, like people, are different. Some people want to go on maternity leave faster, others want to work longer. It cannot be said that going on maternity leave is a woman’s responsibility. You don’t have to go and thereby shorten your maternity leave. But you need to remember that in this case, a significant, as a rule, amount of maternity benefits will not be paid. If you go on maternity leave later, you won’t be able to win much either, since sick leave is issued from the date when you have the right to go on maternity leave (30, 28 or 27 weeks of pregnancy).

You can shorten your maternity leave by interrupting your maternity leave with your application and going back to work.

IMPORTANT! If you leave parental leave before its legal end to work part-time, then the right to child care benefits will remain and it will continue to be paid. You can interrupt maternity leave and go back to work, and then go back on maternity leave any number of times until the child turns 3 years old.

You can increase the time spent on maternity leave by adding regular annual leave to maternity leave. Art. 260 of the Labor Code contains an obligation for the employer to provide annual leave to the expectant mother before or after maternity leave or after parental leave.