How to apply for additional leave for children

When this applies

If you are plan­ning care or time with your chil­dren, start by check­ing the legal ground rather than the holiday sched­ule. For ad­di­tion­al social leave, the key ques­tions are which status gives you the en­ti­tle­ment, whether the other parent used it, and how many days have already been record­ed for the cal­en­dar year.

For example, an em­ploy­ee from Lviv Oblast has two chil­dren under 15, and the other parent works for a dif­fer­ent company in Lviv. The first step is not to enter 17 days au­to­mat­i­cal­ly, but to check whether there is a second in­de­pen­dent ground and which parent used the en­ti­tle­ment that year. Working in dif­fer­ent cities does not create two sep­a­rate quotas.

Which deadline or procedure applies

Under Article 19 of the Law on Leave, one ground gives 10 cal­en­dar days and several in­de­pen­dent grounds give no more than 17 days in total. Article 182-1 of the Labour Code con­firms the en­ti­tle­ment. Records are kept by cal­en­dar year; unlike annual basic leave, there is no general rule to prorate these days ac­cord­ing to months worked.

However, en­ti­tle­ment cannot be de­ter­mined from the number of chil­dren or length of service alone. Check whether the ground existed in the par­tic­u­lar year, how many days were already used, and whether the dis­put­ed period co­in­cid­ed with child­care leave. Ac­cord­ing to the State Labour Service, the right to this social leave does not arise for a period spent con­cur­rent­ly on child­care leave.

During martial law, Article 6 of Law No. 2136-IX sus­pends the ap­pli­ca­tion of Article 73 of the Labour Code con­cern­ing public hol­i­days. Article 12 of that law allows the em­ploy­er, by de­ci­sion, to grant leave beyond annual basic leave without pay and sets out other special re­stric­tions. There­fore, check the du­ra­tion, avail­abil­i­ty, and pay sep­a­rate­ly before plan­ning an absence.

The ad­di­tion­al leave for chil­dren cal­cu­la­tor can help es­ti­mate the re­main­ing balance. It per­forms the arith­metic but cannot es­tab­lish a sep­a­rate el­i­gi­bil­i­ty ground or make the em­ploy­er’s HR de­ci­sion.

Steps to take

1. List the grounds sep­a­rate­ly. Find your cat­e­go­ry in Article 19. Two chil­dren under 15 are one ground; reach­ing the 17-day cap re­quires another in­de­pen­dent ground.
2. Request records by year. Obtain in­for­ma­tion about used days and orders for each cal­en­dar year. After chang­ing jobs, find out what the pre­vi­ous em­ploy­er already granted.
3. Gather ev­i­dence. Attach doc­u­ments proving your ground and avail­able con­fir­ma­tion that the other parent did not use the en­ti­tle­ment. The spe­cif­ic set depends on the family cir­cum­stances; do not rely on one sup­pos­ed­ly “manda­to­ry” form.
4. Clarify the con­di­tions. Check cal­en­dar dates, martial-law rules, and the em­ploy­er’s po­si­tion on pay. For remote work, agree on a sub­mis­sion channel that con­firms receipt.
5. Check the order. After ap­ply­ing, verify the ground, year, du­ra­tion, dates, and pay con­di­tion. If any­thing differs, request a written cor­rec­tion or rea­soned re­sponse.

What to check before applying

Do not apply the rules for annual basic leave to social leave. If your HR portal shows only a com­bined balance, ask for it to be sep­a­rat­ed by leave type and cal­en­dar year. If plan­ning leave around a public holiday, check whether martial law is in force: the cal­en­dar marking alone does not add a day.

If em­ploy­ment has ended, the issue becomes com­pen­sa­tion upon dis­missal. The guide to com­pen­sa­tion for unused leave ex­plains which HR and ac­count­ing records to request. For a current em­ploy­ee, the amount of va­ca­tion pay is a sep­a­rate check; see the guide to va­ca­tion pay.

When to consult a lawyer

A closer review is ap­pro­pri­ate if the em­ploy­er does not rec­og­nize an in­de­pen­dent ground, will not provide year-by-year records, dis­putes your doc­u­ments about the other parent, or applies martial-law rules without a spe­cif­ic written de­ci­sion. In Lviv and Lviv Oblast, a lawyer can compare family and HR doc­u­ments, prepare an ap­pli­ca­tion or demand, and iden­ti­fy the next avail­able remedy; the outcome depends on the facts.