28.05.2020

Partners at Luther Donate Leave for Employees with Children Requiring Care

Cologne – Parents of children requiring care suffer particularly from the double burden of combining childcare and home office in the corona pandemic; many are increasingly reaching their limits. Not only the Federal Government has responded to this situation by extending the continued payment of wages to up to 20 weeks. Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft has also set an example by launching "Luther4Family", a law firm-wide initiative. This initiative provides employees with opportunities and security that go far beyond the extended legal requirements.

Background

The initiative calls for senior managers to donate their own vacation days for the benefit of additional days off for employees with children requiring care. The donated days off are transferred to the Luther4Family pool with their financial equivalent. From this pool, parents can call up additional days off in connection with their contractually agreed vacation in order to bridge care situations. The main aim is to minimize the double burden of home office and childcare and to create real relief time for parents. Furthermore, in emergency situations, additional days off can be taken if the individual holiday entitlement is exhausted.

"With the project "Luther4Family" we are setting an example of solidarity, cohesion and partnership. During the long period of closed daycare centers and schools, many of our employees were extremely challenged. They mastered this challenge with enormous personal commitment," reports Markus Sengpiel, co-managing partner of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft. Luther is now offering these employees the opportunity to use additional childcare time with full compensation, especially during the summer holidays, but also in the event that daycare centers and schools are closed. "Thus, necessary care time can be secured without any loss of salary or quality of care. At the same time, we ensure that our employees are not dependent on state transfer payments. With this initiative, we are demonstrating responsibility not only for our employees, but also towards the state social security systems. We therefore see this initiative as an effective contribution to our sustainability strategy," adds co-management partner Elisabeth Lepique.