Single parents will be able to take additional days of parental leave to care for children under the age of 12 during the coronavirus lockdown.
The so-called "corona leave" would not knock off days from the number of parental leave days that are already granted to working parents in an employment contract.
The leave would be partial, as it would allow working parents to cut back their work hours to three-quarters or half-time of their regular work.
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All single parents with at least one child under the age of 12 and who have been in employment for at least one month will be able to benefit from this extended leave.
Shut down since mid-March and just recently back from the Easter holidays, schools have implemented distance-learning, which is set to continue until at least 3 May, the latest date of extension for the current lockdown.
Gezinsbond, a family union in Brussels and Flanders put forward the proposal, which Federal Work Minister Nathalie Muylle said that she would be accepting the measure and using the government's powers of attorney to move forward with it.
The scheme will remain valid until the end of the school year and would put provisions in place to process requests more rapidly.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
