In a press release dated 16 September 2020, the Luxembourg Ministry of Social Security has clarified when parents can take leave for family reasons if their child is officially quarantined or isolated.

The child must be placed in quarantine or isolation by order of the Health Department.

In these two specific cases, and where the parents of the children concerned must take care of their child, one of the parents may take leave for family reasons for the duration of the Health Directorate-imposed quarantine or isolation.

Recourse to leave in these conditions is also available where children are at school or in an institution abroad but their parents are affiliated with the Luxembourg social security system. In this case, the competent authority in the country in question takes the decision to place the child in quarantine or isolation, and must issue a certificate or attestation of this decision.

The parent taking leave for family reasons must fill in a form which will be sent to him or her directly, and which is also available on the guichet.lu portal. This form must be signed and submitted to the employer and the National Health Fund, together with the order issued by the Health Department (or competent foreign authority).

Days taken as leave for family reasons because a child is quarantined or isolated are not counted against the legal days available according to the age group of the child concerned. Under the Luxembourg Labour Code parents are normally allowed to take twelve days per child if the child is aged between zero and less than four years old; 18 days per child if the child is between 4 and less than 13 years of age and five days per child if the child is aged between 13 and 18 and hospitalised (leave allowances are doubled for each age bracket for children who receives an additional special allowance due to a disability.).

In all other cases of illness of a child (other than quarantine or isolation), the usual procedure for leave for family reasons applies.

According to the additional information published on the Guichet.lu website:

• The parent concerned can be an employee (on a fixed-term contract, indefinite contract or probationary period), self-employed, or an apprentice.
• Both parents (or spouse) cannot take the leave for family reasons at the same time (same day and/or time). This restriction does not apply to teleworking, that is, where a parent is working from home and cannot take care of the child during working hours or days. When one parent is teleworking, the other parent can use family leave during the teleworking hours or days.