The situation
An employee’s parental leave request
A Madrid travel-software company with an engineering office in Stockholm has two leave requests on the HR lead’s desk. A Madrid product manager is expecting her second child. A Stockholm developer wants to reduce his hours for a year as parental leave. Both want a written answer this month.
The two systems share an EU floor and little else. Spain separates leave for the birth from a separate parental leave; Sweden ties leave to a benefit paid by the social insurance agency and lets parents spread it. The reply has to separate what the employer must allow from what the state pays.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- The EU sets the floor
- The Work-Life Balance Directive gives each parent at least four months of parental leave, two of them non-transferable and paid or compensated, plus ten working days of paternity leave around the birth. National law can go further.
- Leave and benefit are different things
- The employer grants the leave and protects the job. The payment during leave usually comes from the social security system, not the employer. A reply should keep the two apart.
- Spain: two separate entitlements
- Spanish law gives each parent leave for the birth and care of a child, paid by social security, and a separate parental leave that can be taken until the child reaches a set age. The lengths and payment rules have changed recently, so check the version in force.
- Sweden: flexible, with notice
- Swedish law lets parents take full-time leave in the child’s early period, reduce their working time later, and split leave into periods. The employee must give the employer notice in advance, and the parental benefit is paid by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Employee in Stockholm, child born in March 2026, wants to work 75% from January to December 2027 as parental leave. Is he entitled to the reduction, how much notice must he give, and can we refuse or move the dates?
You start with
An employee’s parental leave request
- 01
Describe the request
Give the country, the child’s date of birth, and the leave or reduction asked for. azta searches the Spanish and Swedish legislation and the EU directive.
Cited research· Free - 02
Read the provisions
Open each cited provision in the reader and confirm the version in force on the date the leave starts.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Draft the reply
Ask for a reply that confirms the entitlement, the notice and what the employee must apply for elsewhere. Edit it in Canvas and translate it if needed.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A reply setting out the entitlement, the notice rules and what the employer confirms
What you get
A reply setting out the entitlement, the notice rules and what the employer confirms
Reply to employee · draft
Your request to reduce working hours as parental leave
Thank you for your request to reduce your working time to 75% from January to December 2027. Under the Swedish Parental Leave Act you are entitled to reduce your working time while your child is young, and we confirm the reduction for that period.
Parental benefit for the reduced hours is paid by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, not by the company. Please apply to the agency for the days you plan to use.
We will agree the distribution of your working hours with you and your manager. If either of us needs to change the arrangement later, the notice rules in the Act apply, and any change will be confirmed in writing.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
24 minutes a month
At €70 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 18
- Capacity at your rate
- €1,260
- More leave entitlement replies a quarter
- 3
- Return on Pro
- 3.9×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoWhat stays with you
- Confirming the facts with the employee.
- Planning the team around the leave.
- Any top-up the company or a collective agreement provides.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta hold the benefit agency’s guidance?
- azta holds Swedish and Spanish legislation and EU law. The social insurance agencies’ own guidance on benefits is not something it holds for every country; the source register lists what is included.
- What about top-ups in our collective agreement?
- Upload the agreement and azta reads it alongside the law, citing each separately.
- Can the reply go out in Spanish or Swedish?
- Yes. Ask for the reply in the employee’s language, or select the text in Canvas and translate it.
