Parental Leave
What is parental leave?
Parental leave is a legally protected period away from work for mothers and fathers who personally care for and raise their child. As an employee, you can request parental leave from Smart. You can take up to 3 years of parental leave per child. During this time, you do not have to work and do not receive a salary from Smart. Under certain conditions, you may apply for parental allowance (Elterngeld) as financial support.
Good to know:
- Each parent can take parental leave.
- You do not have to receive parental allowance at the same time in order to take parental leave.
- During parental leave, you can reduce your working hours to 0 and receive no salary. If you are publicly health insured, you are generally covered by health insurance without having to pay contributions during parental leave, provided you have no other income subject to social security contributions.
- During parental leave, you can generally work up to 32 hours per week on a monthly average.
- You can take up to 3 years of parental leave per child.
Parental leave and Smart
The most important information:
- If you do not receive a salary from Smart during parental leave, no social security contributions are deducted from this salary. If you work part-time during parental leave, social security contributions are generally payable on your employment income.
- During parental leave without a salary, you cannot process orders through your employment relationship with Smart. If you want to continue processing orders, you need to be employed part-time accordingly.
- If you work part-time during parental leave while receiving parental allowance or parental allowance plus (ElterngeldPlus), your income may affect the amount of parental allowance you receive. The amount of parental allowance depends, among other things, on your income before and after the birth of your child.
- You can divide your parental leave into several periods. If you want to receive a salary again between these periods, we need detailed information about your orders and the planned payments.
Applying for parental leave
Inform us by email that you would like to take parental leave. We will then send you the necessary documents. Please notify us of your parental leave at least 7 weeks before it begins.