🧩 Combining care and work in everyday life
In brief
Care leave and family care leave are limited in time (together at most 24 months per relative) and require at least care level 2. But many family carers need a lasting solution – for example because care continues for years or because (as yet) no care level has been determined. This is where the general employment-law instruments come in: the general right to part-time work, individually agreed flexible working hours or working from home.
Step by step
- Assess your needsClarify whether a temporary solution (care leave/family care leave) is enough or whether a lasting adjustment of working hours is needed.
- Check the general right to part-time workUnder § 8 TzBfG you can – regardless of a care situation – demand a permanent reduction of your working hours from businesses with usually more than 15 employees and at least 6 months of service.
- Negotiate informallyMany employers agree flexible solutions (flexitime, days working from home, annual working time accounts) voluntarily, without a legal entitlement being necessary – raise the subject actively.
- Involve the works council or staff councilWorks councils (Betriebsrat) and staff councils (Personalrat) often have experience with agreements on combining care and work and can mediate.
- Keep the return to your old hours in mindIf you permanently reduce your working hours, you do not secure – unlike with care leave – an automatic right to return to the previous number of hours; raise a time limit on the reduction if desired.
Deadlines
- The general right to part-time work under § 8 TzBfG is not a care-specific instrument – unlike temporary care leave, it has no right to return to the previous working hours.
- The employer can refuse a reduction of working hours for operational reasons; whether this is lawful in a particular case depends heavily on the circumstances.
- According to the available sources, no separate "care part-time right" with a guarantee of return exists outside the PflegeZG and FPfZG – confusion with parental part-time work (§ 15 BEEG) is not appropriate here, as that applies exclusively to raising children.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Relationship of the instruments to each other
Care leave (§ 3 PflegeZG) and family care leave (§ 2 FPfZG) are special-statute rights to leave that are limited in time and tied to a care level. The general right to part-time work under § 8 TzBfG, by contrast, is unlimited in time and independent of care, but also has no special protection against dismissal and no possibility of full leave.
Requirements of § 8 TzBfG
Employees whose employment relationship has lasted more than six months, in businesses with usually more than 15 employees, are entitled to a reduction of their contractual working hours. The application must be made at least 3 months before the desired start; conflicting operational reasons can exclude the entitlement.
After care leave or family care leave
After care leave or family care leave ends, there is in principle an entitlement to return to the previous working hours. Anyone who then continues care to a reduced extent generally has to fall back on the general right to part-time work or a consensual agreement for a further lasting reduction.
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