Dad - Co-mother

You must give notice of when you expect to take paternity leave no later than 4 weeks before the expected start of paternity leave/co-mother leave. At the same time, you must state if you intend to take the 1-8 weeks of leave that can be transferred from the mother and be taken within the first 10 weeks after the birth.

As soon as the child is born, Vivi Madsen at SDU Human Resource Services, the Staff Office, must be notified so that the leave can be reported to Udbetaling Danmark.

No later than 6 weeks after the birth, you must inform SDU how you want to use your other parental leave options. Please send your message to Vivi Madsen at SDU Human Resource Service, the Staff Office. She will then draw up a maternity plan and submit it to you for approval, signature and returning. 

As a father/co-mother, you are entitled to 2 weeks of earmarked paternity/co-mother leave with full pay. Paternity/co-mother leave must be taken immediately after the birth or after the child comes home from the hospital. However, if agreed upon, the 2 weeks can be placed at a later date within the first 10 weeks after birth. You may also agree with your employer that the leave is taken on separate days within the first 10 weeks after the birth of your child.

If you do not take the 2 weeks of paternity leave/co-mother leave, you will forfeit your right to take them (in other words, the weeks are non-transferable).  

After birth, both you and the mother of the child are each entitled to 24 weeks of leave with maternity benefit. Your 24 weeks are distributed as follows:

• 2 weeks of earmarked paternity/co-mother leave (please see the previous section on this)
• 9 weeks of earmarked parental leave
• 13 weeks of transferable/postponed (delayed) parental leave

9 weeks of parental leave are earmarked for you as a father/co-mother and must be taken before your child turns 1 year old. If you do not take the earmarked leave weeks, your maternity benefit will lapse, and thus also your right to paid leave. It is not possible to hand over the earmarked weeks to the mother.

You can transfer the remaining 13 weeks to the mother if desired, or you can postpone them (please see the section on this) and take them later. The transferred weeks must be held before the child’s first birthday. Postponed weeks must be taken before the child’s 9th birthday.

You and the mother of the child can take leave at the same time, in continuation of each other or in turn.

Parental leave consists of a paid and an unpaid part. The paid part of the leave must always be taken first.

Please note that there is a right to 32 weeks of leave after birth (i.e. the right to parental leave of up to 32 weeks), but only 24 weeks with maternity benefit for each parent overall after the birth. 

As a father/co-mother, you can transfer up to 13 weeks of your part of the parental leave to the other parent.

You can only transfer leave to the other parent once your child has been born. In addition, both of you must be registered as parents before you can transfer leave to each other.

As a rule, the transferred leave must be taken within 1 year after the birth of the child. The leave can be extended or postponed until the child’s ninth birthday.

The transfer of leave takes place via the website borger.dk, and a copy of the transfer must be sent to Vivi Madsen at SDU Human Resource Services, the Staff Office.  

If you as parents do not live together at the time of birth, the leave is distributed differently.

The leave of the parent with whom the child lives:

• 24 weeks of leave which follow the general rules described above.
• Furthermore, 13 additional weeks of leave are granted, which must be taken before the child turns 1 year old. The parent can choose to transfer up to 13 weeks of leave to the other parent, as well as postpone or extend the weeks until 9 years after receipt of the child, provided the necessary conditions are met. 
• If the parent the child lives with also has sole custody, or gets sole custody of the child before the child’s first birthday, the parent can apply to Udbetaling Danmark for an additional 9 weeks of leave with maternity benefit. 

The leave of the parent with whom the child does not live:

• If the child does not live with its mother, the mother is entitled to 2 weeks of leave upon birth + 8 weeks of leave + 9 weeks of leave. The earmarked weeks are non-transferable. 
• If the child does not live with its father/co-mother, the father/co-mother is entitled to 2 weeks of leave upon birth + 9 weeks of leave. The earmarked weeks are non-transferable.

As a father/co-mother, you are entitled to 2 weeks of earmarked paternity leave with full pay.

In addition, you are entitled to full pay for 7-13 weeks of parental leave. If the child’s mother is also covered by the state’s maternity/paternity agreement, together you have the right to full pay during parental leave for 10+7+6 (23) weeks: 10 weeks for the mother and 7 weeks for the father/co-mother plus 6 weeks, which you may split among yourselves as you please. If you take the 6 weeks that you can split among yourselves as you please, you can thus get full pay for up to 13 weeks of parental leave. If the child’s mother is not covered by the maternity/paternity agreement, your right to pay is not affected by whether the mother takes paid parental leave according to other rules.

You are entitled to full pay during the periods mentioned above if you are also entitled to maternity/paternity benefits. The right to pay under the maternity/paternity agreement is conditional on the employer being able to receive the full maternity/paternity benefits reimbursement.

Please note that it is your own duty to apply for maternity/paternity benefits. SDU does not handle this for you. However, SDU reports to Udbetaling Danmark when your leave ends, after which Udbetaling Danmark will send you a ‘request for maternity benefit’ via your e-Boks account. Please note that any paid weeks from SDU are deducted from your weeks with maternity pay. 

Even though the right to maternity/paternity benefit does not exceed 24 weeks, there is, as previously stated, a right to absence for 32 weeks after birth (32 weeks of parental leave). You can choose to extend your parental leave from 32 weeks to 40 or 46 weeks.

If you make use of the opportunity to extend your leave, the entire leave must be taken consecutively. 

As a father or co-mother, you can postpone up to 5 weeks of parental leave.

Even if you are entitled to more leave or been granted leave from the other parent, you cannot postpone more than 5 weeks of leave without agreement with your manager. 

The postponed leave must be taken after the child has turned 1 year old. The leave must be taken coherently and before the child’s 9th birthday. Postponed leave can be taken with a notice period of 8 weeks.

However, it is also possible to make an agreement locally with your manager on postponing a different number of weeks of parental leave (maximum 13 weeks). In this case, too, the postponed leave must be taken before the child’s 9th birthday, and as per agreement or with a notice period of 16 weeks. An agreement-based postponement of leave can only be used at SDU.