A district administrator from Schleswig-Holstein wanted to go on part-time parental leave. His district council has now rejected the appropriate application. This is not possible in certain positions, the AfD deputy said. The members of other factions, on the other hand, did not want to comment on the decision.
Patrick Puhlmann is district administrator of the Stendal district and wanted to take part-time parental leave between August and October in order to devote more time to his family. He offered not to leave his position completely, but to continue working 22 hours a week. But because employees in Germany need the employer’s consent for this, he had to ask the district council. With 16 to 14 votes, he then refused the 39-year-old’s request during a meeting. Puhlmann is therefore not allowed to go on part-time parental leave. The decision was not justified.
“It’s about two months part-time, in fact four weeks. It’s a slightly longer holiday, a nasty corona infection, a broken leg,” says Puhlmann to the “Spiegel”. He was disappointed and would not have thought it possible that a political issue with escalating debates would develop from his application today.
According to a report by “MDR”, the parliamentary groups CDU, AfD and members of the parliamentary group “FDP, Alliance 90/Greens and farmers in the region” voted against Puhlmann’s application. Most MPs declined to comment on the closed session. The parliamentary group leader of the AfD, Dietrich Gehlhar, was one of the few to explain his decision: “In certain positions something like that doesn’t work.”
Because the district council did not justify the decision against the application, the decision is not legal under German law. That is why the MPs have to discuss it again on Monday evening. Puhlmann finds it important to remain steadfast. He says: “I am concerned that this debate alone could have a deterrent effect on others.”
