Am I allowed to go on holiday with a ban on employment?
In principle, it is also permitted to go on holiday during a ban on employment. However, in order to be sure of this, it is advisable to have a doctor certify in advance that your holiday is harmless to your health. It may also be a good idea to check with your health insurance company beforehand to be on the safe side in case of any problems with your employer afterwards. The legal regulations also regulate the holiday entitlement of pregnant women. If the leave was granted by the employer before the ban on employment came into effect and if it falls within the period of the ban, the employee is entitled to take this leave after the end of the protection periods, possibly also in the following year.
What reasons can there be for a ban on employment?
General reasons for a ban on employment are laid down in the Maternity Protection Act. For certain reasons, an exception can be made with the consent of the pregnant woman. For example, there is a ban on employment in a period of 6 weeks before the birth until at least 8 weeks after.
A further reason for a ban is the endangerment of the life of the child and mother by the work performed. In addition, certain working conditions are a prerequisite for an employment ban. These include heavy physical work, vapours, gases or dust that are harmful to health (e.g. in woodworking), lifting heavy loads, standing for more than 4 hours from the 5th month onwards, an activity with an increased risk of falling, as well as piecework or work on an assembly line.
For the latter, an exception can be made by the supervisory authority. An individual employment ban may be issued by a physician in private practice if the work carried out by the pregnant woman involves a risk of complications caused by certain individual accompanying symptoms of the expectant mother. For example, an already existing severe nausea, which is intensified by intense odours at the workplace, can be a reason for an individual employment ban.
Which employment prohibitions apply to educators?
After the EU regulation on biofuels came into force in 2005, a kindergarten is considered a high-risk workplace. Typical childhood diseases such as whooping cough, measles, mumps, (rubella) rubella, chickenpox or the cytomegalovirus often have a more severe course in adults than in children and can also damage the unborn child. If an educator becomes pregnant, she must therefore inform her employer immediately.
The employer is then obliged to take the pregnant woman off work until her immune status has been clarified. If there is sufficient immune protection for the diseases in question, the expectant mother may continue to work at her workplace until the general protection periods of the Maternity Protection Act (normally until 6 weeks before delivery). If there is no sufficient protection for one of the above-mentioned illnesses, the pregnant woman must be issued an immediate individual employment ban by a doctor. In individual cases, a change of workplace to an area with a lower risk of infection (e.g. office/administrative work) may also take place.
