11 April 2024

Mourning leave

On April 10, 2024, the Minister of Social Affairs circulated a new letter on the complete overhaul of the leave system. This overhaul is intended to make the system more comprehensible for both employers and employees. No legislative proposal for this revision is ready at this time, but the minister’s letter emphasises the intention to draft legislation. In the letter, the minister explains that leave can be broken down into different clusters of comparable forms of leave with the intention to unify the conditions and implementation. The proposed clusters are as follows: 

  • Care of children: maternity leave, adoption or foster care. 
  • Care for loved ones: short and long-term care leave for a sick relative (mantelzorg) or a sick child. 
  • Personal situations: short-term leave for unforeseen or special circumstances. 

Separately, a legislative proposal to implement a new form of leave has entered the public consultation phase: the introduction of mourning leave. Current leave upon the loss of a close relative is short and applies until the funeral; it is not intended as mourning leave. The legislative proposal introduces a minimum standard of five days (the hours of one work week) of mourning leave for working parents upon the death of a partner or minor child. During that period the employee retains the right to full pay. It will be possible to (partially) deny mourning leave in case of compelling business reasons. 

How can La Gro be of assistance? 

Do you have a question about employees going on leave? Do you want to introduce additional leave within your company? Do you have a different question? Expertise in 18 legal fields enables La Gro to offer broad legal assistance. Feel free to contact me or one of my specialist colleagues.   

Author
G.B.M. (Gerard) Zuidgeest

Attorney at Law & Partner

Call: +31 172 530 250