INPS, with message no. 14448/2011, provided some clarification on the sentence no. 116/2011 according to which the Constitutional Court declared the female employee right, in case of premature birth and hospitalization of the child, to use the compulsory leave period as of the actual entry of the newborn child in the family. The same right is granted to the father if he uses the leave instead of the mother for death or serious illness of the latter, abandonment of the child by the mother or the father sole custody of the child. In addition to the leave postponement, the mother has to offer her working activity during the period of the child hospitalization. Therefore, the mother, before working again during the planned leave period, has to obtain the medical certificates which attest the compatibility of her medical condition with the restarting working activity. If the postponement is requested by the father, as well as the usual documentation attesting his right instead of the mother, he has to enclose to the leave request the medical certification issued by the health facility where the child is hospitalized. Finally, INPS specified that the postponement of compulsory leave after childbirth has not be requested if the child hospitalization is not due to premature birth, but to entirely different reasons.
