French Public Health Code
In forceAttached practitioners may be placed on unpaid parental leave to bring up their child. In this position, practitioners retain their rights to step advancement, reduced by half.
Parental leave is granted automatically to the mother after maternity leave or to the father after childbirth and until the child's third birthday. It is also automatically granted to the father or mother until three years after the arrival in the home of a child under the age of three who has been adopted or entrusted with a view to adoption.
Where the child adopted or entrusted for adoption is over three years old when he or she arrives at the home but has not yet reached compulsory school age, the leave may not exceed one year from the child's arrival at the home.
Applications for parental leave must be submitted at least one month before the start of the leave and must include an undertaking by the practitioner to devote the leave to bringing up the child.
Parental leave is granted by the director of the public health institution for periods of six months, renewable by tacit agreement. A practitioner who wishes to interrupt his parental leave must notify the Director at least one month before the expiry of the current period. Interrupted leave may not be resumed at a later date.
The beneficiary of parental leave may, at any time, request that the period of leave be shortened for serious reasons, in particular in the event of a reduction in household income or in the event of new pregnancies.
Where both the father and mother are employed by the company, the parent entitled to parental leave may waive this entitlement in favour of the other parent for the period remaining until the expiry of the entitlement. The other parent must submit his or her request at least one month in advance. The other parent is placed on parental leave, at the earliest, from the day on which the beneficiary returns to work.
If a new birth or adoption occurs during the parental leave, the attached practitioner is entitled to further parental leave.
The director of the establishment will arrange for the necessary investigations to be carried out to ensure that the practitioner's work is actually devoted to bringing up his child. If an investigation reveals that this is not the case, the leave may be terminated after the person concerned has been given the opportunity to present his/her observations.
Parental leave is automatically terminated if the child placed for adoption is withdrawn.
At the end of the parental leave, the attached practitioner is reinstated as of right for the remaining period of employment, if necessary in excess of the number of employees. He shall submit his request at least one month before the date on which he wishes to be reinstated.
