People who work for an employer in Denmark are also entitled to care days or ‘care days’ of leave from work to be with a child or children. No specific reason needs to be given for the leave.
‘care days’, which translates roughly in English as ‘care days’, are days which you are entitled to take paid leave from work to be with a child. They are not the same as statutory annual leave for holiday or vacation.
All mothers and fathers who work in the public sector in Denmark are entitled to take the childcare leave days up to and including the year of their child’s seventh birthday. Two days off are allowed per child per calendar year.
People who work in the private sector will be covered by the contract they have with their employer, or the collective bargaining agreement between their trade union and the organization to which their employer belongs. They must therefore check their contract or agreement to see whether care days are provided.
Public sector
In the public sector, there is no deadline by which you must inform your employer that you intend to take time off with your child. But you should inform them that you intend to use the care days with as much notice as possible.
Your employer is not allowed to demand that you provide a reason for taking the days. They are obliged to agree to your request unless it is incompatible with the work you do.
The care days can be taken as full or half days off, or even by the hour if your employer agrees to this.
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Public sector staff cannot carry over unused care days two subsequent years – in other words, they lapse at the end of the calendar year. There are some exceptions to this – days from the year the child is born can be carried forwards, as can days which were not used due to other forms of leave such as parental leave.
People who work part time in the public sector also have the right to take the days off. In such cases, they are reduced in proportion with the number of hours you work.
Private sector
As noted above, people who work in the private sector may also be able to take care days if this is stipulated by the contract they have with their employer, or the collective bargaining agreement between their trade union and the organization to which their employer belongs.
Some collective bargaining agreements give parents the right to take the care leave of absence in a similar fashion to people hired in the public sector.
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It should be noted that the care days can (but do not have) to be used to care for a child who is sick, but are not the same as the statutory ‘first day off’ which parents have the right to take (either paid or unpaid) if their child is taken ill acutely.
READ ALSO: Can you take sick leave in Denmark if your child is ill?
The days can also be used to be with a child while they are getting used to going to kindergarten, and only attending part time (often referred to in Danish as the drive-in period), or when they are starting school. They can also be taken simply to spend some quality time together.
If you are a member of a trade union, your union will be able to tell you whether the collective bargaining agreements it has signed give you the right to take paid care days.
In addition to leave from work for care days (as described in this article) and when children are acutely ill, there are also rules in Denmark relating to long-term care for sick children. These will be addressed in a separate article.
