Leave types & leave regulations

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Overview of leave types, regulations and request procedure.

The accrual and taking up of regular (holiday) leave has been laid down in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO-NU). In addition, the collective labour agreement contains provisions on public holiday leave and on a few special forms of leave that have their basis in the Work and Care Act. This concerns, for example, maternity leave, adoption leave, parental leave, personal leave and emergency leave.

Leave request

Registration of leave is a self service in myHR/AFAS. For some leave types, the request has to be approved by your manager or the HR department. The table on the bottom of the leave portal page indicates the request status.

Leave regulations

How the UT implements the leave provisions of the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities has been determined in the University of Twente Leave Regulations. The UT has a separate regulation for educational leave and study leave (see explanation further down the page).

Leave types

  • Adoption and foster care

    If you adopt or decide to foster a child, you are entitled to a maximum of six weeks of paid leave. You can take up this leave consecutively. You may also take up the leave spread over a period of twenty-six weeks. This period may start four weeks prior to you taking in the child into your family but you may also take up the leave at a later stage. You can do so up to twenty-two weeks after taking in the child into your home.

    You need to request leave for adoption or foster care with your manager no later than three weeks prior to taking in the child. Upon approval, you will need to apply for an adoption or foster care allowance (Work and Care Act; Wet arbeid en zorg) with the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) together with the UT. As the UT continues to pay your salary during your leave, the UT will be receiving this allowance.

  • Birth Leave

    Birth leave

    If your partner has given birth to a child, you are entitled to fully paid leave of once your working hours per week. The birth leave must be taken within four weeks of the day of delivery. You register the birth leave via the leave portal in MyHR.

    You are eligible for birth leave if you:

    • are the married or registered partner of the person who gave birth to the child, and/or
    • have acknowledged the child, and/or
    • are cohabiting unmarried with the person who gave birth to the child.

    Additional birth leave

    You are also entitled to additional birth leave. UT applies for a benefit amounting to 70% of the maximum daily wage with UWV. This benefit accrues to UT. Your salary is paid at 100% during the additional birth leave. This is regulated in UT's leave regulations.

    To be eligible for the additional birth leave, you must first have taken birth leave.

    The total extent of the additional birth leave is 5 times your working hours per week. You can spread the total number of hours corresponding to your choice, as long as they are taken within 6 months of your child's birth.

    Equal birth leave for all families

    If you have taken a newborn child into your family or household, but you are not eligible for (additional) birth leave, you may be eligible for equal birth leave. That can be in a family with two fathers or a family where more than two parents take care of the child.

    You are eligible for the equal birth leave in the following situations:

    • the child is admitted to your family or household within 6 weeks of birth;
    • you relate to the child as a parent;
    • the person who gave birth to the child is not part of your family or household;
    • you are not eligible for other legal forms of leave concerning parenthood, such as adoption or foster care leave.

    Equal birth leave amounts to a maximum of 6 times the working hours per week and must be taken within 26 weeks from the date on which the child is taken into your family. During the leave, you are entitled to continued full pay and accrue full leave.

    If you want to take additional or equal birth leave, register this, after coordination with your manager, in My Leave in MyHR via (Future) parents - Birth & Parental Leave.

  • Educational leave

    As a member of UT staff, you may be eligible for educational leave. The aim of educational leave is to positively influence your performance within the UT or improve your career prospects. You can use the leave to follow an educational programme or course, to exchange or refresh your knowledge or to gather specialist experience within a specific subject area.

    You may only be eligible for educational leave if you have been employed with the UT for at least five years and if you have a permanent employment contract when the leave is to commence. To be eligible for a new period of educational leave, you will again need to have worked at the UT for five additional years.

    You can take up to a maximum of three months' consecutive educational leave if you decide to use all of your working hours for the purpose of studying, but it is also possible to take educational leave whilst continuing to work part-time. That way, you can take up leave for a longer period of time. Your request needs to be approved by the faculty or unit.

    The UT will continue to pay out your salary during the educational leave. In addition, your faculty or unit may grant an allowance to cover expenses related to the leave, such as education expenses and travel and accommodation expenses.

    You need to apply for educational leave with your faculty or unit no later than three months before you wish to start the educational programme. You also need to submit a study plan and a budget which you are to prepare in consultation with your manager. This plan should include what exactly you want to do during the educational leave, which expenses will be incurred and how the leave relates to your work at the UT. The plan needs to be approved by your faculty or unit.

    For more information refer to the UT Regulation Paid Educational Leave. Please also read the specific information about going abroad for your educational leave for a longer period of time.

  • Emergency leave

    In case of an emergency, you may be eligible for additional leave. An emergency is a sudden event taking place in your private life requiring your immediate attention and thus making it impossible for you to work. Examples include a burst pipe or your partner going into labour. The duration of the leave is a maximum for a period that can be considered reasonable and fair in view of the nature of the emergency. This is usually a few hours to a maximum of 2 days. Please inform your manager about the emergency as soon as possible and indicate how long you think the situation will last for. You can apply for emergency leave via the Leave Portal in My/HR Afas, choose Special Leave and select 'calamity leave'. Please do so once the emergency is over.

  • Family care leave

    Your faculty or unit can grant personal leave for situations in which you necessarily take up care for a close family member. For more information, see Article 12 of the Leave Regulations.

  • Family events

    In certain situations, you are entitled to additional leave. If possible, you must request this leave no later than 24 hours in advance in the Leave Portal of MyHR/Afas via Special Leave.

    Event

    Additional leave

    Your marriage

    1 contractual working week

    Marriage of first- or second-degree kinship or relations by marriage

    1 calendar day if the celebration takes place on a day you normally work

    Death of your partner and death of first-degree kinship or relations by marriage

    The day of death until the day of the funeral or cremation

    Death of second-degree kinship or relations by marriage*

    A maximum of 2 consecutive calendar day

    Death of third- or fourth-degree kinship or relations by marriage

    The time that is needed to attend the funeral or cremation, with a maximum of 1 calendar day

    Death of the person living together with a brother or sister of your partner's

    A maximum of 1 calendar day if the funeral is on a day that you normally work

    If you are charged with organizing the funeral and/or settling the inheritance after the death of a person in first- or second-degree kinship or relations by marriage**


    A maximum of 2 calander days


    Your 25th or 40th wedding anniversary

    1 calendar day if the celebration takes place on a day you normally work

    25th, 40th, 50th or 60th wedding anniversary of your or your partner's (step)parent's

    1 calendar day if the celebration takes place on a day you normally work

    * A maximum number of leave days is given in case of the death of second-degree kinship or relations by marriage. In practice, it often suffices to take less leave than officially allowed. The number of days of leave must be taken consecutively. The weekend is excluded from this. This means that if the death takes place on Thursday, the leave applies to Friday and the following Monday.

    **To arrange the funeral and / or the settlement of the inheritance of a relative by blood or marriage in the 1st and 2nd degree, you are entitled to two additional days of leave. This leave is additional to the leave that is granted in the context of the death of a blood relative or relative in the 1st or 2nd degree.

  • Holiday leave

    Accrual of holiday hours

    With full-time employment, you accrue 232 hours of holiday hours annually. This entitlement consists of 152 statutory holiday hours and 80 non-statutory holiday hours. If you work part-time, you accrue holiday hours pro rata. If you start working in the course of a calendar year, you are entitled to a proportional number of holiday hours. A proportional adjustment also takes place if the scope of your employment changes.

    Compensation hours

    If you have full-time employment, you work by default 40 hours per week. Because the working hours are formally only 38 hours per week, you actually work 2 hours too much every week. As compensation you will receive 96 compensation hours per year. The compensation hours will expire at the end of the calendar year. You cannot transfer these hours to the new calendar year.

    Taking leave

    If you want to take a holiday, you can request leave via the Leave Portal in MyHR/Afas. As a rule, your faculty or service department approves the holiday request. Only if the interest of the organization makes this necessary, the faculty or service department can decide that you cannot take the holiday at the desired time. In principle, you take up the holiday and compensation hours in the calendar year in which you accrue them. Do you think that in a calendar year you will not take up all the hours built up that year? Then make timely agreements with your superviser about reducing the remaining hours. For example, about planning a holiday period, using hours in the Optional Model for Employment Conditions or a temporary reduction in the number of hours you work per week. If you have not yet made any arrangements on 1 July of a calendar year, the faculty or service department can, in consultation with you, determine a holiday period of up to four weeks.

    Illness and leave

    If you have been ill for a longer period of time, you will accrue the same amount of leave as a colleague who is not ill. However, leave hours that you accrue or turn in because of the flexible work hours scheme are exempted from this. The accrual or reduction of these hours stops after six months of sickness.

    During an illness, you will continue to take up leave if you are capable to do so. This is usually the case. If you have been admitted to a healthcare institution, are confined to your bed or are no longer able to perform daily tasks independently, you will not be required to take up leave.

    During an illness, you will still request leave via the Leave Portal in MyHR/Afas. The number of hours that you take up is equal to the number of hours which you ought to have worked, had you not been ill.

    Dismissal and leave

    If you have holiday hours left on the dismissal date and you have not had the opportunity to take these hours, these hours will be paid. Compensation hours will not be paid at the end of your employment.

  • Legal obligations

    You can be granted leave to exercise your right to vote and to meet other legal obligations, though only if you are unable to do so in your leisure time.

  • Maternity leave

    If you are expecting a baby, you are entitled to pregnancy leave in the period leading up to childbirth. After giving birth, you are entitled to maternity leave.

    Certificate

    To be eligible for pregnancy and maternity leave, you must timely be in the possession of a certificate of pregnancy containing an indication of the delivery date issued by the physician or midwife. You add this statement to your application for pregnancy and maternity leave via the Leave Portal in MyHR/Afas. Here you must also indicate when you want the pregnancy leave to start.

    Leave period

    The starting date of the pregnancy leave is at minimum four and at maximum six weeks before the day of the indicated delivery date. The pregnancy leave lasts up to and including the day of delivery. The maternity leave begins on the day after the delivery. The maternity leave period is at least ten weeks. Together, the pregnancy leave and maternity leave periods are at least sixteen weeks. If the delivery occurs after the indicated delivery date, then the total period will be longer than sixteen weeks.

    Extended leave for a multiple birth

    If you are pregnant with two or more children, you can go on leave eight to ten weeks before the delivery date. Similar to women giving birth to one child, the maternity leave period is at least ten weeks. Only if the delivery occurs before the indicated delivery date and because of that your pregnancy leave period is less than six weeks, the maternity leave period will be extended in a way that together the pregnancy and maternity leave periods are sixteen weeks.

    Hospital stay baby

    If the baby stays at the hospital for a longer time during the maternity leave, the leave will be extended with the number of hospitalization days counting from the eighth day of hospitalization up to and including the final day of the original maternity leave. The extension can be no more than ten weeks.

    Flexible leave

    The last period of the maternity leave can be flexible. This concerns the leave that remains after six weeks after the delivery date. This part of the maternity leave can be taken spread out over a period of no more than 30 weeks. You will do so in deliberation with your manager. The request for flexible maternity leave must be submitted to your faculty or department no later than three weeks after the delivery date.

    Death of the mother

    If the mother dies during the maternity leave, then her partner can take up the remaining leave. This concerns the leave for the period up to ten weeks after the delivery. The partner will take up this leave with their own employer and is entitled to payment of salary during the leave. The partner is also granted this leave if the mother was not entitled to the maternity leave; e.g. because she was not working or was self-employed.

  • Parental leave

    General

    On the basis of the Work and Care Act (Wet arbeid en zorg), you are entitled to parental leave if you meet the following conditions:

    • you are in a family relationship with a child or live at the same address as the child for whom you are taking parental leave and have permanently taken on the care and upbringing of that child;
    • the child for whom you are taking the leave has not yet reached the age of 8 years;
    • you have not yet taken 26 weeks of parental leave for the child in question with your current or a previous employer.

    Per child the parental leave amounts to a maximum of 26 times the weekly working hours.

    Both parents, in their own right, are entitled to parental leave for the same child. Entitlement to parental leave also applies for adoptive children, foster children and stepchildren who live with you (this must be evidenced by the Municipal Personal Records Database) and for whom you have permanently taken on the care and upbringing.

    In case of multiple births, or if you have taken on the care and upbringing of more than one child through adoption with effect from the same date, you are entitled to parental leave and partially paid parental leave for each of those children. For foster and stepchildren, there is only one entitlement to leave in this situation. 

    Since 2 August 2022, the Work and Care Act provides for partially paid parental leave of up to 9 times the weekly working hours until the child reaches the age of 1. For parents of adopted or fostered children, this right applies during the first year of the actual adoption (provided the child is under eight years old). After 9 times the weekly working hours of paid parental leave have been taken and/or the child has reached the age of 1, statutory parental leave is unpaid leave.

    When taking parental leave in the child's first year of life, you are entitled to a benefit under the Work and Care Act. This benefit amounts to 70% of your salary up to the maximum that applies under social security legislation. This benefit is payable by your employer. You are obliged to cooperate with the application to UWV for this benefit.

    Supplementary regulation under the collective agreement for Dutch Universities (cao-nu)

    The cao-NU uses the same eligibility criteria for parental leave as the Work and Care Act.

    As an employee to whom the cao-NU applies, you will receive 70% of your usual salary for the hours for which you have parental leave as long as the child for whom you are requesting parental leave has not yet reached the age of 1 year, for a maximum of 13 times (instead of 9 times) the weekly working hours. If the child has reached the age of 1 and you  have not yet taken 13 times the weekly working hours, you will receive 62.5% of your salary for the remaining part over the hours of parental leave. Pension accrual with ABP continues and the university continues to contribute to your pension premium. You only accrue statutory vacation hours over partially paid parental leave.

    Following the parental leave on partial pay, you can take up to 13 times your weekly working hours of unpaid parental leave. You will then receive no salary for the hours for which you take parental leave and you will not accrue vacation leave. Your pension accrual will continue, but the full pension premium (employer’s and employee’s share) for the hours of leave will be charged to you. As far as possible, the payroll administration will deduct this premium directly from your salary. If that is not possible, e.g. because you have taken unpaid parental leave for the full scope of your employment, you will receive an invoice.

    Previously taken paid or unpaid (also with another employer) parental leave for the same child is deducted from the credit. If you leave your job before the full parental leave balance has been taken, you can take the remainder with a subsequent employer. For more information on parental leave, please refer to Chapter 4, Section 4 of the collective labour agreement.

    Requesting parental leave

    You must notify us in writing of your intention to take parental leave at least two months in advance, specifying the period you would like to take parental leave, the number of hours per week and how the leave will be spread throughout the week. We recommend that you discuss your desire to take parental leave with your immediate supervisor before requesting it through the Leave Portal in MyHR.

  • Public holidays

    As a member of UT staff you do not have to work on New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, King's Day, Liberation Day, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. At your request, your faculty or unit may grant you leave on other religious holidays.

    Also, from the year 2024, it is possible to exchange Good Friday for another religious, national, regional or local holiday or day of remembrance. For conditions, please visit: Details about scope of employment, working hours and days

    The UT closes for public holidays and compulsory leave days and you normally will not be required to work on those days.

    It is possible that you may have to work on a public holiday or during a collective closure, for the UT's benefit. In that case you will receive a leave day at a different time to compensate for the hours worked. In addition, you may be entitled to a bonus for working non-standard hours (TOD) (see bonus section).

  • Relocation

    If you are moving due to commencement of employment with the University or a transfer to a different work location, you will be granted two days of leave to do so. If your relocation is connected to a transfer to a different work location, you will be granted an additional two days maximum of leave to search for a different home as well.

  • Sabbatical leave

    It is possible to request extended special leave for the benefit of academic purposes (sabbatical leave). The faculty or unit can grant this leave for a duration of twelve months at the most, with full, partial or no pay. The supervisor and the employee make agreements about the purpose of the leave and the way the leave is taken, the remuneration during the leave, the payment of the pension premium and the accrual and registration of compensation and holiday hours. If you are going abroad for your sabbatical leave, please read this important information on the Working Abroad page.

  • Study leave

    If you are taking a course by order of your faculty or unit, you will be granted leave with full pay for attending classes, interim examinations, examinations, etc. unless the leave damages the interests of the faculty or unit. In addition, you can be granted extra study leave in order to prepare for examinations or interim examinations.

    In certain situaties, your faculty or unit can also grant you leave with full pay if you are taking a course at your own initiative. Discuss with your manager if that is the case before you submit a request with the administrator of your faculty or service .

    In addition, as an employee you are entitled to at least two (from 2024 onwards: three) personal development days each year, to spend on development/training within the scope of Recognition and Rewards and/or your continuing employability.

    For more information, please see the UT Employee Education and Study Regulations.

Contact

Please contact HR Services for any further questions. Tel 053 489 8011.

For ideas, comments or changes to this page, please email webteam-hr@utwente.nl

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