Staff with Family Responsibilities
Staff with family responsibilities must face the challenge of balancing work and family. Parents and expectant parents find information here on maternity protection, parental leave and parental allowance, as well as working time regulations. Employees who care for relatives will find comprehensive information on the care portal.
Image: Janne Marie Dauer Information for (Expectant) Parents
During pregnancy, expectant parents have many questions. The Human Resources and Organisation Department has compiled a leaflet (Merkblatt, German only) with the most important regulations on maternity protection, parental leave, and special leave. You can also find more information on the topic of “Child and Work” under the following link.
The Family Service has compiled a checklist (German only): What do I need to consider when I am pregnant?
All staff, regardless of temporary status or individual working hours, trainees, and student and research assistants have the opportunity to take parental leave. Each parent is entitled to a total of 36 months of parental leave per child. Of these, as many as 24 of the total 36 parental leave months can be taken between the child's 3rd and 8th year of life. Before taking parental leave, please inform yourself about the applicable deadlines for registering parental leave. Further information on parental leave allowance can be found on the website of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs.
Parental leave allowance is a wage replacement benefit which parents receive if they look after their child themselves for the first 12 or 24 months of its life and either stop working or reduce their hours to do so.
The amount of the parental leave allowance is based on the net salary of the parent providing care, which they stop earning after the birth. Depending on income, the basic parental leave allowance is between € 300 and € 1800 per month. The minimum parental allowance of € 300 is paid to all those who look after their child themselves after the birth and work a maximum of 30 hours a week. This means that students with or without a part-time job as well as persons running a household also receive the minimum amount of € 300 per month.
Further information on parental leave allowance can be found on the website of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs.
The statutory entitlement to leave for looking after a sick child according to § 45 SGB V (10 days) needs to be taken before the leave entitlement under the collective bargaining agreement (4 days), § 29 TV-H. If the employee is entitled to sick pay according to § 45 SGB V during the child’s illness, they will not receive any pay from their employer during this time. The entitlement to leave according to § 29 subsection 1 letter e double letter bb TV-H is only considered for staff who have exhausted their entitlement according to § 45 SGB V or who are not covered by statutory health insurance.
In addition, medical evidence of the need for the employee’s presence – not of the nature of the illness – must always be submitted to the employer.
For the University of Kassel, the continuous expansion and evaluation of family-friendly study, academic and working conditions is a central component of a family-friendly university. As part of a family and life-phase orientated personnel policy, the University has set itself the goal of making special provision for family leave, such as parental or care leave, for its employees.
The contact holding and re-entry programme supports communication between the university and its employees before, during and after family-related career breaks.
It is aimed at all employees from science, technology and administration as well as trainees at the University of Kassel who are planning or taking family-related leave (e.g. pregnancy, maternity leave, parental and caring leave).
The contents of the programme and the entire concept can be found on the page The contact holding and re-entry programme "organising family time"
Options for Organising Working Time
With the service agreement on mobile work, which has been in force since 17.10.2022, employees have the option of working on a mobile basis. The service agreement and further information can be found in the internal domain at Arbeitszeitangelegenheiten - Mobile Arbeit.
Staff at the University of Kassel can work part-time to help them achieve a better work life balance.
You can find more information on working part-time on the page of the Department of Human Resources and Organisation under this link.
If you have any further questions, please contact the responsible persons in the Department of Human Resources and Organisation.