There is no legally mandated deadline by which you have to inform your employer of your pregnancy. However, as there may be risks to the unborn child, especially during the first three months of pregnancy, the employer should be informed of the pregnancy as soon as possible, so that effective maternity protection can be ensured.

RWTH employees please note:

Please inform your supervisor at your University institution about your pregnancy so that they can take the necessary maternity protection measures as soon as possible. For privacy reasons, however, your supervisor may not pass the information on to third parties.

Therefore, please also inform your personnel officer of Department 8.0 of your pregnancy as soon as possible (with a copy of the pregnancy record or equivalent proof), so that he or she can pass on the information to the RWTH's Occupational Safety and Radiation Protection staff unit and to the district government.

The staff unit will the send you a risk assessment form. You must carry out this workplace-specific risk assessment with your supervisor (and the relevant safety officer) and provide information on any measures agreed on. You will then return the completed and signed risk assessment to the Occupational Safety and Radiation Protection staff unit. The staff unit will then determine whether the implemented measures are sufficient or whether further adjustments need to be made. If this is the case, the staff unit will contact you to discuss further steps.

In addition, the Occupational Safety and Radiation Protection Staff Unit or the University Medical Center will be available for advice and assistance. You can contact (anonymously, if you wish) Ms. Delavarian from the staff unit by phone at  80-97097, the University Medical Center at 80-94444.

Maternity protection begins six weeks before the estimated date of birth and typically ends eight weeks after the birth. For premature, multiple births, or children with a disability, maternity leave job protection is granted for twelve weeks after giving birth. For premature births, the period of protection after the birth is extended by the days or weeks of maternity protection that could not be taken before the birth. In the event of a later delivery, the protection period after the birth is still eight or twelve weeks.

The maternity allowance paid by German State Health Insurance is capped at 13 euros per calendar day for employees. If the average net income per calendar day exceeds 13 euros, then the employer is obligated to make up the difference in order to reach the correct amount of maternity allowance.

Female employees who are not members in a statutory health insurance fund – for instance those covered by mandatory insurance under a family plan – receive a maternity allowance of 210 euros maximum, which is paid by the Federal Office for Social Security, or Bundesamt für Soziale Sicherung. The maternity allowance of expecting mothers and current mothers with higher incomes is also supplemented by employers. This payment is based on the difference between a supposed net wage of 13 euros per calendar day and the average actual net income.

Depending on how you are insured, you will have to apply either with your mandatory health insurance provider or the German Insurance Office, or Bundesversicherungsamt.

Female employees who are members of the statutory health insurance fund receive their maternity allowance from their health insurance provider. Expecting mothers who are privately insured or covered under a public insurance family plan, can only receive maternity pay from the Federal Office for Social Security, or Bundesamt für Soziale Sicherung (see the previous question). In order to apply, you will need a doctor's note stating the approximate date of delivery. This is typically issued eight weeks before the due date.

For the disbursement of the allowance, the employer must also be informed of the calculated date of birth and, after the birth, of the actual date of birth. Employees of RWTH Aachen University should contact their clerk at the Human Resources Department.

Caution: The maternity allowance paid by the Bundesversicherungsamt can be claimed in addition to the parental allowance; the maternity allowance paid by the mandatory insurance provider after the birth of a child, however, is being offset against the parental allowance.

Women who are not employed at the beginning of their maternity leave but are entitled to receive sick pay due to being insured by one of the mandatory insurance providers will be paid a maternity allowance equal to the amount of sick pay from their health insurance provider for the time of their supposed maternity leave. There won't be a supplemental payment on the part of an employer in this case.

Unemployed women who are covered by mandatory health insurance according to SGBIII due to being recipients of unemployment benefits at the beginning of the time period in which they are protected by the maternity guidelines and whose employment is not legitimately terminated during their pregnancy will be paid their maternity allowance by their mandatory health insurance provider. The amount of the maternity allowance is equal to the amount of the unemployment benefit that was paid before the insured woman entered the maternity protection period before childbirth.

If a fixed-term employment contract runs out during the maternity protection time period, the maternity allowance by the insurance provider as well as the supplemental payment by the employer will be paid until the contract ends. Subsequently, these women will receive a maternity allowance from their health insurance provider that is equal to the amount of sick pay. It will be disbursed until the end of the maternity protection period.

Detailed information on maternity protection guidelines and maternity allowance can be found in the German language maternity guidelines information leaflet, or Leitfaden zum Mutterschutz, published by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and youth.

Important note for female members of academic staff:

Fixed-term employment contracts according to the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (Law on Fixed-Term Contracts in Higher Education and Research, shortened to WissZeitVG in German) §2 (1) (Qualification Phase) can be extended upon application with the employee's consent by the periods of employment bans or maternity protection periods within the framework of the Mutterschutzgesetz (Maternity Protection Act) (and, if applicable, parental leave, see below). ↑ §2 (5) WissZeitVG.

For more information on your own employment contract, please contact Department 8.1.

Parental leave must be registered in writing with your employer 7 weeks before the start of the period, and if leave is taken when your child is between two and seven, it must be registered 13 weeks prior. In the first three years of your child’s life, you must bindingly specify when you will take leave within the next two years (a two-year binding period). Parental leave may be terminated early or extended with the consent of the employer. Even without the employer's consent, ongoing parental leave may be terminated prematurely in order to take advantage of maternity protection periods for a further pregnancy.

RWTH employees can download the application form and fact sheet for parental leave from the intranet, under "Online-Dienstleistungen” (Online Services). It is available in the Formularcenter (forms database). Please type “Elternzeit” into the search field.

While on parental leave you may work 32 hours (for births after September 1, 2021: 32 hours) a week at maximum. You have a right to work part-time during parental leave if your place of employment offers jobs to more than 15 individuals, your employment there has already lasted more than six months and there are no operational reasons to preclude it. Another prerequisite is that the working hours are reduced to between 15 and 32 hours per week for at least two months (for births until August 31, 2021: between 15 and 30 hours per week).

You are not generally entitled to be assigned the same tasks as before going on parental leave, but you can only be transferred to an equivalent position. You have to notify your employer in writing at least seven weeks before you wish to begin working part-time; if you plan to use this opportunity for part-time employment during parental leave when your child is between three and eight years old, then you will have to notify your employer 13 weeks beforehand.

Should you already know that you will want to work part-time during your parental leave, we recommend that you notify your employer as soon as possible; you could even indicate your wishes or put in a firm request when applying for parental leave.

Compulsory members of public health insurance who are not receiving any other income liable to contribution except for the parenting allowance are insured without cost during their parental leave.

Privately insured parents or voluntary members of public health insurance must continue to personally pay their insurance premiums during their parental leave as before. If you are usure about the deails, please contact your health insurance provider in due time for further information.

Public officials may apply with the LBV for reimbursement of their contributions towards health insurance for an amount of up to 31 euros monthly for the duration of their parental leave. In order to be eligible, earnings before taking parental leave cannot have exceeded the income threshold for compulsory insurance. Further information on the specific provisions for receiving financial aid during different types of leave can be found on the German-language information sheet provided by the NRW Ministry of Finance.

Fixed-term employment contracts are not extended as a result of parental leave. Certain exceptions apply to academic staff members whose fixed-term contracts are subject to the regulations according to the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG for short. In cases of fixed-term contracts regulated by Section 2 (1) WissZeitVG, the duration of a fixed-term employment contract will be extended by those time periods, during which an employee has not worked due to being protected by maternity leave guidelines or having availed herself of the right to take parental leave (Section 2 (5) WissZeitVG). For further information about your employment contract, please contact Division 8.1.

You will accrue vacation days during maternity leave. These are calculated as they are during regular periods of employment. Entitlement to vacation is reduced by one twelfth for every full month of parental leave. Detailed instructions on how to calculate how many vacation days you are due to receive can be found in the RWTH vacation handbook.

The team of the Family Services Center is happy to assist you on all matters pertaining to parental benefits and related matters. Please make an appointment for an individual advising session.

On the English language website provided by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, or BMFSFJ for short, you will find detailed information, a brochure as well as an Elterngeld calculator (de). 

You have to apply for Kindergeld at the Family Benefits Office, or Familienkasse, at the local labor office, or Agentur für Arbeit. The parental benefits are paid out starting with the month of birth of the child. More information on everything concerning Kindergeld can be found in German on the Employment Agency website.

In 2022, according to Section 45 SGB V, employees with statutory health insurance can apply for up to 30 – instead of 10  – ten working days paid sick leave – 20 for single parents – for each publicly insured child. If you have several children, you can take up to 65 days of paid sick leave in total. In 2021, single parents can claim 60 days per child instead of 40 (up to 130 days if they have several children). These regulations apply if the child is younger than twelve years old or if it has disabilities and if you are unable to come to work because you must care for the sick child due to the fact that there is no one else in the household who could take on this task. The doctor's note attesting to the child's illness for this time period must also be provided.

In order to receive paid leave for the purpose of caring for sick children, you must first put in a request with your employer which must also include the medical certificate by the child's doctor. This child-related sick pay request is then submitted to the respective statutory health insurance provider. The maximum amount provided is equivalent to up to 90 percent of the employee's net income.

Up to and including September 23, 2022, parents eligible to receive child sickness benefits can also claim paid sick leave if they must care for their child (or children) as schools or daycare facilities are closed due to the pandemic, compulsory attendance has been lifted, or parents have been officially advised not to send their children to school or daycare. In such cases, parents have to submit a certificate from the daycare facility or school. 

RWTH employees who are not entitled to receive child-related paid sick leave pursuant to Section 45 SGB V – for instance if they or the child are privately insured – are entitled to request up to four days of paid leave a year to care for their severly ill children according to Section 29 TV-L. You can find more information in this regard on pages 30ff of the RWTH vacation handbook.

For further information on special regulations due to the coronavirus pandemic, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions About the Coronavirus web page.

When your child turns one year old, you have a legal right to a childcare place. A Kita, private nursery or nanny may accept your child even at an earlier age. In order to receive government funded childcare for children younger than one year old, you will need to fulfill certain prerequisites, however. We highly recommend that you make an appointment with the RWTH Aachen Family Services Center to find out about all of your options with regard to childcare in a personal consultation setting.

There are no hard and fast rules about when to start looking for a childcare place. At what point you start looking or applying really depends on how old the child will be when he or she begins childcare and what type of childcare you are envisioning for your child. To help you fully understand your options and choices we recommend that you make an appointment for a personal consultation with the Family Services Center.

The City of Aachen has comprehensive offers for families in Aachen. You can find comprehensive information about all childcare offers in the city – regardless whether they are state, church, public, or private institutions – at www.aachen.de/familie. The Kitaportal was created to make the allocation of KiTa spots easier. You can use the portal to register your child for publicly funded institutions of almost all kinds in the city. A broad range of daycare opportunities are available via Familiäre Tagesbetreuung Aachen e.V.

The following childcare options are specifically available to RWTH Aachen employees: There are a total of 42 spots available at Kindertagesstätte Königshügel for the children of employees.There are also daycare spots for children under the age of three in the "RWTH U3 Groups" organized by the Family Services Center of RWTH's Equal Opportunities Office. In addition, RWTH has access to 19 spots in two Aachen daycare centers. The "Uni & Kind" play groups, which are supported by the University, offer care opportunities for a few hours. You can find more information about childcare here.

Unfortunately this is not possible, as RWTH Aachen finances these institutions specifically to care for its employees' children. You should inquire at your institute, if there are any arrangements with childcare institutions.

Childcare spots in the daycare "Schneebergkids" are open to UKA employees. There are also offers for short-term childcare. If you need further advising, please contact the University Hospital Family Services Office (de).

Forschungszentrum Jülich also helps its employees look for suitable childcare. It also operates a KiTa nearby, where you can directly register your child. You can find information here. If you need further advising, please contact the Equal Opportunities Bureau.

For publicly funded childcare, such as provided in a Kita or by an in-home daycare provider, you will have to pay a monthly parental contribution to the youth welfare office, or Jugendamt. The exact cost is determined by your yearly gross household income, but the age of the child and the extent and duration of care are factors in the calculation as well. You can find detailed information in German about the monthly Parental Contributions for Kitas and about  in-home daycare on the city of Aachen website. Currently, the last two years of daycare before starting school are free of charge. For the year 2021, due to the coronavirus situation, the parental contributions in the city of Aachen will be completely waived.

For children aged six to thirteen, RWTH Aachen University is offering a holiday recreation service during the Easter, summer and fall vacation. Further RWTH offerings for school students can be found under the heading  Schülerprogramme. In addition, numerous vacation activities are provided by other, diverse Aachen institutions.  Detailed information can be found on the Vacation Programs of the City of Aachen website.

The open all-day schools, or OGS for short, typically provide some childcare during school vacations for grade school children – for three weeks during summer vacations for example. Children who will only begin with the first grade after the summer break can already participate in these offers at their future OGS. Many open all-day schools also offer a one-week long vacation program during Easter and fall vacation.

The vacation handbook offers a detailed explanation of the few cases, in which vacation requests cannot be granted. There need to be compelling reasons preventing the granting of a vacation request, such as teaching duties for instance. If requests are in conflict with the vacation wishes of collegues, several aspects need to be considered, including those of a social nature, such as having family responsibilities and, in particular, caring for school-aged children. If an agreement cannot be reached, the human resources department will be contacted. They will make a decision with the help of the Staff Council.

According to the State Travel Expense Law, travel costs for an accompanying person can be reimbursed if the primary traveler is still nursing. Otherwise there are no cases, in which travel expenses for a travel companion may be reimbursed. We strongly recommend that you contact the Travel Management and Benefits Office (Division 8.3) to have your specific travel plans approved in advance.

If a newborn's parents are not married at the time of birth, a father's paternity will have to be acknowledged separately even if both parents are living with the child in one family household. Only after paternity has been proven, you as the father will be entered into the birth registry and your child will be entitled to receive child support, inherit from your estate or claim pension benefits while you in turn gain custody rights. It can also be helpful to have your paternity acknowledged before applying for any public benefits or assistance. This process is possible even before the birth of your child, but at the latest it should be accomplished right after.

The father of the child can acknowledge paternity at the Youth Welfare Office – Jugendamt – or at the Civil Registry Office – Standesamt – free of charge. The mother has to give her consent. Acknowleding paternity allows fathers to exercise their parental rights, such as being allowed regular parenting time with the child, while at the same time holding them responsible to support their child financially. Further information and the name and numbers of your  city of Aachen contact person are provided in German here.

If the father is not willing to acknowledge paternity, the mother can apply to have paternity established by judicial decree at the family court, or Familiengericht. In this case, the Youth Welfare Office can also be relied on for support in this matter. If a child's parents are not married and have not declared whether or not they want to raise the child in joint custody, then the mother initially has sole custody of the child. Joint custody is, however, possible for an unmarried couple. The declaration of joint custody can also be registered at the responsible Jugendamt and can already be accomplished before the birth of the child. The Jugendamt provides further information in this matter on the City of Aachen service portal.

• VAMV: The local chapter of the association for single mothers and fathers, or Verband alleinerziehender Mütter und Väter offers advice and support for single parents.
• Bundesstiftung Mutter und Kind: The Bundesstiftung Mutter und Kind – Schutz des ungeborenen Lebens is a federal foundation offering financial aid to pregnant women in need.
• Unterhaltsvorschuss: Single parents who do not, or not regularly, receive support payments from the other parent, may apply for a maintenance advance. More information can be found in this brochure from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, albeit only in German. You'll have to apply for this type of financial aid with the Unterhaltsvorschusskasse Aachen at the Jugendamt – or Youth Welfare Office.
• Beistandschaft: Guardianship is a voluntary service offer for single parents with sole custody. More specifically, it is a special form of legal guardianship, which encompasses two possible fields of activity: determining paternity and collecting parental support payments. More information can be found in the German language online publication by BMFSFJ or you may contact the city of Aachen for further assistance.

The RWTH Family Services Center of the Equal Opportunities Office provides information and advising to (expecting) parents on the topics maternity leave, parental leave, parenting allowance, and childcare, and supports them with making their plans.

The Department of Human Resources – either 8.1, 8.2, or 8.5 depending on your profile – offers advising for all human resources matters.