FAQs on balancing work and family

Yes. Please contact your manager in the event that you are pregnant and inform the human resources department as well. For the purpose of calculating the dates for your maternity leave, please send a copy of your Mutterpass stating your expected due date to the relevant person in the human resources department at FAU. Please do not submit a doctor’s certificate that you are charged for. Once you report the pregnancy, you will receive a letter from the human resources department informing you when maternity leave begins and what else you ought to be aware of. Your manager is obliged to report your pregnancy to the Supervisory Authority for Occupational Safety (Gewerbeaufsichtsamt) and to carry out a risk assessment of your place of work. For more information, see FAU’s human resources handbook.

If you are a student, please report your pregnancy to L 3, Susanne Kramarenkoff: ibz-mutterschutz@fau.de or phone + 49 9131/85-23733 (cellphone: + 49 174/6105615). FAU is obliged to report your pregnancy to the Supervisory Authority for Occupational Safety. Further details: Maternity Protection Act for students

Parental leave must be applied for in writing at least seven weeks before it begins. You should submit the form for applying for parental leave “Anmeldung der Elternzeit” (for employees: P1002; for public servants: P1104). As proof of the child’s date of birth, we require a copy of the child’s birth certificate or confirmation of birth for child benefit. You can submit it together with your application, if you are applying after the child is born or submit it after the child is born if you are applying beforehand. All we require with your initial application is proof that you are actually expecting or have had a child (not all the stated types of proof are required at this stage). When applying for parental leave, you must state the exact dates you would like to take parental leave within a period of 2 years. Please remember to transfer any months you do not take to a later date by marking the application form accordingly.

Parental leave taken after the child’s third birthday must be applied for 13 weeks in advance. Your manager must acknowledge your application for parental leave by signing the form. The signed form is then processed by the person responsible for you in the human resources department. After it is processed, the mother/father/grandmother/grandfather receives a letter confirming the parental leave. If parental leave is split into three phases, the employer is entitled to refuse the third phase on the basis of urgent work-related reasons.

Both employees and students who are parents should apply for child benefit from the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). You can fill out the application directly online.

You apply for parental allowance at the Bavarian Family and Social Affairs Center (Zentrum Bayern Familie und Soziales). On the center’s website, you will also find comprehensive information on the various options for getting parental allowance, as well as an online application form. The queries are then customized to your information and you will receive a checklist with the required documents. The application is provided as a printable version for the required signature. You will also find a parental allowance calculator as well as information on Bavarian family allowance (Bayerisches Familiengeld) and Bavarian daycare allowance (Bayerisches Krippengeld).

 If you are claiming an extension of your employment contract according to the WissZeitVG, please apply for it in time at the Human Resources Department. You can find the application form here. (Antrag auf Verlängerung des Beschäftigungsverhältnisses um Zeiten einer Inanspruchnahme von Elternzeit und / oder Zeiten eines Beschäftigungsverbots (P1162) (Stand: 26.03.2019) 

 All information regarding a semester of leave for a special reason, as well as the relevant application forms, can be found on the FAU Student Records Office pages. You may continue to study and take exams at the pace you are able during a semester of leave due to pregnancy or childcare, but your semester count will not continue.

Yes. During your parental leave, the chair can hire a replacement for you from the personnel funds then available. This also applies to maternity leave, during which you will continue to receive a part of your salary, but must then apply separately: Funds from the target agreements between the faculties and the university management are used to bridge personnel bottlenecks in teaching and research as a result of the absence of an academic employee due to maternity leave. This also applies to employees with third-party funding, in order to improve the chances of women being hired for project positions. Please send the informal application with reference to the target agreements to the ZUV of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, P3, Attn: Mr. Dietmar Bruckler, VA, Schlossplatz 4, 91054 Erlangen with a carbon copy to Dr. Imke Leicht, Office for Gender and Diversity (Büro für Gender und Diversity).
The request should include a justification for the need for the replacement, information type, scope and exact time period of the replacement.

All information regarding caregiver leave and family caregiver leave can be found in FAU’s Personnel Handbook. The purpose of caregiver leave is to allow employees to take time off from work, in whole or in part, for a limited period of time without continued payment in order to care for family members in need of care.
In acute situations, a leave of up to ten days can be taken to organize necessary care. A medical certificate is sufficient as proof. For the ten-day care leave, you receive a wage replacement benefit similar to that for sick days for children. This must be applied for from the care insurance fund (Pflegekasse) of the person to be cared for. Please contact the relevant care insurance fund (Pflegekasse) to find out about the application procedure.
A leave of absence/reduction in working hours of up to six months is possible in order to care for close relatives yourself. Ten days’ notice must be given and evidence provided in the form of a certificate from the care insurance fund (Pflegekasse) or the medical service of the health insurance funds (Medizinischer Dienst der Krankenkassen).
A leave of absence is also possible for the care of underage relatives in need of care.
Close relatives undergoing palliative medical treatment can be accompanied in the last weeks of life.
If necessary, an interest-free loan can be applied for from the Federal Family Office (Bundesamt für Familie). In any case, please contact the personnel administrator responsible for you.

If you would like to apply for a nursery place through FAU, please refer to the related Family Service pages for more information. Please send the application forms directly to the individual institution’s administration. If you do not live in Erlangen or prefer a nursery place close to home for other reasons, please obtain information directly from the local facilities or from your municipality about the application formalities. You can find the corresponding web portals here: Erlangen, Fürth and Nürnberg. It is important that – if possible – you are on the waiting lists of your preferred facilities at least one year in advance, as the care situation is very tight for many reasons (few available free places, shortage of skilled workers, etc.). 

FAU will probably have 50 kindergarten places of its own at the Johanniter Kinderhaus “Pfauennest” from September 2022. Please contact the head of the facility, Ms. Scherzer (phone 09131/ 85 67 53 5, e-mail: nadja.scherzer@johanniter.de), directly regarding registration for the waiting list.
For places in other facilities, please refer directly to the websites of the cities of Erlangen, Fürth and Nürnberg or your municipality. Please note that the “Sprengelprinzip” applies to kindergarten places – this means that you must live in the area surrounding the facility in order to get a place there.
It also applies to kindergarten places that you should be registered at least one year in advance for the corresponding waiting lists of the facilities, as the place situation in the metropolitan region is very tight.