URGENT FAMILY LEAVE REGULATIONS

URGENT FAMILY LEAVE

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 452.88

URGENT FAMILY LEAVE REGULATIONS

5th April, 2004

LEGAL NOTICE 296 of 2003, as amended by Legal Notices 427 of 2007

and 28 of 2025.

The title of these regulations is the Urgent Family Leave

Regulations.

(1)

In these regulations -

''the Act'' means the Employment and Industrial Relations Act;

''pro rata'' shall have the meaning assigned to it by article 2 of

the Act

Provided that

(a) when the employee is employed in part-time

employment on a variable time schedule, the number

of hours of work per week shall be the average number

of hours of work per week spread over successive

thirteen week periods commencing on the first of

January of each calendar year; and

(b) when the employee has not been in part-time

employment for a period of thirteen weeks the average

number of hours of work per week shall be calculated

over the number of weeks in employment.

(2) Subject to the provisions of subregulation (1), terms and

expressions used in these regulations shall, unless the context

otherwise requires, have the meaning assigned to them in the Act.

(1) The purpose of these regulations is to lay down

minimum requirements designed to facilitate the reconciliation of

parental and professional responsibilities for working parents.

(2) These regulations shall be applicable without prejudice to

the introduction and implementation of more favourable provisions

in collective agreements or other agreements entered into between

the employer and the employee.

(3) These regulations shall apply to all workers who have an

employment contract or employment relationship as contemplated

in the Act.

(1) All employees, shall be entitled to time off from work

on grounds of force majeure for urgent family reasons in cases of

sickness or accident making the immediate presence of the

employee indispensable.

(2) The circumstances covered by subregulation (1) shall

include

(a) accidents to members of the immediate family of the

employee;

(b) the sudden illness or sickness of any member of the

immediate family of the employee requiring the

URGENT FAMILY LEAVE

assistance or the presence of the employee;

(c) the presence during births and deaths of members of

the immediate family of the employee.

(3) For the purposes of this regulation, ''immediate family''

means the husband, wife and married or unmarried children, as well

as family relations up to the first degree, and whether living in the

same household or not and persons having legal custody of a child.

No advance notification is required to be given by the

employee except in those cases where it is possible for the

employee to give at least twenty-four hours notice of an event

which is to take place and which requires the absence of the

employee from the place of work for urgent family reasons.

(1) The employee shall have the right to be provided with a

minimum of thirty-two (32) hours with pay per year by the

principal as time off from work for urgent family reasons as

specified in these regulations

Provided that the first sixteen (16) hours availed of by the

employee for urgent family reasons shall be deducted from the annual

leave entitlement of the employee. Whilst the remaining sixteen (16)

hours availed of shall be deducted from the annual sick leave

entitlement of the employee, subject to the availability of the

respective balances of the employee.

(2) The employer shall have the right to establish the maximum

number of hours of time off from work in each particular case, save

that the minimum time should not be less than one hour per case

unless there is the specific agreement of the employee.

(3) The employer shall have the right to demand such evidence

as may be necessary to verify and confirm the request for urgent

leave by the employee.

(4) Part-time employees shall be entitled to pro-rata urgent

leave entitlement.

Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with the

provisions of these regulations shall be guilty of an offence against

the Act and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine (multa) of not

less than four hundred and sixty-five euro and eighty-seven cents

(465.87) and not more than two thousand and three hundred and

twenty-nine euro and thirty-seven cents (2,329.37).