On 6 June 2022, the Draft Act amending the Labour Code and certain other acts of 3 June 2022 (bill number: UC118) was published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre. It is intended to introduce numerous changes to the Labour Code concerning work-life balance.
One proposed change is the ability to permit parental leave for employees – parents of a child with a certificate stating a severe and irreversible handicap or incurable life-threatening disease which arose during the prenatal period of the child’s development or during childbirth for the purpose of caring for that child and in the scope of up to:
- 65 weeks (in the case of giving birth to one child in one birth)
- 67 weeks (in the case of giving birth to two to five children in one birth).
Both parents of a child would be entitled to parental leave at the same time, but on the condition that the total amount of parental leave would not exceed the above-noted 65 or 67 weeks.
Legislative work is still in progress and remains at an early stage. The draft law has not yet been submitted to the Sejm.