The employee is entitled to take leave from work to provide personal assistance or support to a family member or a person the employee has a relationship with and lives in the same household as the employee.

Informal care leave could be used, for example, to escort a person on a hospital visit or help them in obtaining services when a family member returns home from hospital care.

A prerequisite for informal care leave is that a family member or other person with whom is the employee has a relation needs significant assistance that requires the immediate presence of the employee or support due to a serious illness or serious injury that has significantly reduced their functional capacity.

An employee is also entitled to a similar leave due to participation in the terminal care of the above-mentioned person. Family member means the employee's child, parent, spouse or cohabiting partner and a person in a registered partnership with the employee.

Informal care leave can be taken for a maximum of five days during the calendar year. Employees must notify their employer of the need to take informal care leave and its estimated length as soon as possible.

At the employer’s request the employee must show proof of the grounds for the leave. In practice, this proof could mean an employee's free-form explanation of what kind of assistance or support they need to provide to their family member in order for the employer to assess whether grounds for the leave are met. Providing the employer with a medical certificate for a family member is only possible on the basis of the family member's explicit consent.

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