Bereavement Leave

LegacyUser

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is a personal issue but I am looking for personal opinions. A friend of mine who works in the same company as me is mid 20s and has recently lost her mother. Her father died several years ago. I know that 3 days is the only time that employers are obliged to give. What I'm wondering is what other peoples experiences with this are? Did the employer encourage time off, give days or was sick leave taken? How much time would be usual or reasonable in such a case? We work for a major corporate bank.

Karen_*

Well probs she should go and speak to HR. Everyone has or has had parents so although 3 days is the standard for time off I'm sure employers would be sympathetic to someone taking more time.

Lizzykins

My employer gives 5 days for mother,father, in-laws, siblings,even grandparents. I work for a major NGO. I did work at one time for one of the major retail banks and when my own parents died I got 3 days. However I was told to take as much time as I needed coming back. I don't know whether it was marked down as special leave or what. I only took a day or two extra in any case. I think possibly a corporate bank especially if it's an American one might be likely to be less flexible though I'm open to correction.

bnagrrl

Could your friend apply for Force Majeure leave? My mum passed away last Oct and I had 3 days bereavement (max allowed where I work) and 3 days FM. In my job you can only take something liike 5 FM leave days over a 3 year period. Check with your own HR first.

Condolences to your friend at this time.

mikemac

bnagrrl wrote: »

Could your friend apply for Force Majeure leave? My mum passed away last Oct and I had 3 days bereavement (max allowed where I work) and 3 days FM. In my job you can only take something liike 5 FM leave days over a 3 year period. Check with your own HR first.
.

You've described Force Majeure leave exactly. But it doesn't apply here.
It's for caring for people who are injured or ill, not somebody who died.
Sorry, that sounds harsh but that's what it's for.

So don't go the employer and start quoting Force Majeure. You need to use annual leave. Or you employer might let off for a few days but no law stating you will get paid.

The employer will probably give about 3 days paid leave but they can refuse if they wish.

Good info here: http://www.equality.ie/index.asp?docID=237

An employee is entitled to leave with pay from his or her employment for urgent family reasons, owing to the injury or illness of any of the persons listed below.
a child or adoptive child of the employee;
the spouse of the employee, or a person with whom the employee is living as husband or wife;
a person to whom the employee is in loco parentis;
a brother or sister of the employee;
a parent or grandparent of the employee;
persons in a relationship of domestic dependency , including same-sex partners.
Entitlement to force majeure leave is limited to circumstances where the immediate presence of the employee, at the place where the ill or injured person is situated, is indispensable.
During an absence on force majeure leave an employee is regarded as being in the employment of the employer, and retains all of his or her employment rights.
Force majeure leave is paid leave. It cannot be treated as part of any other leave [s.14(5)] (e.g. sick leave, adoptive leave, maternity leave, annual leave or parental leave) to which the employee is entitled.

Marksie

This may be more suitable for work and jobs

HashSlinging

OP she can take force majure, and say she is comforting her brothers and sisters.

Sorry to hear. Hope she's ok

LegacyUser

Thanks for all the replies so far. Would it be usual for work to send flowers or people from work to attend the funeral or removal? At lizzykins and bnagrl, 5 or 6 days seems like a very short time to cope with what I can only imagine to be the most awful loss. How did you cope so well?

Gregor Samsa

My mother died earlier this year, and my company (international e-commerce company) gave me 3 days paid bereavement leave. On top of this, I took 2 days annual leave, and also applied for 1 day Force Majure, since I got a call at 3 in the morning to say she was dying and had to travel across the country to be with her until she died in the afternoon - so technically the first day wasn't "bereavement" as such.

My brother, who works in an insurance company, was given 5 days paid bereavement leave.

As far as I know, there's no statutory entitlement to paid bereavement leave, so it's really up to the company. As explained above, Force Majure isn't supposed to be used in the case of someone dying, but it might be possible to use it as I did depending on circumstances.

I hope your friend is doing OK.

LegacyUser

Get a sick cert from your local doc for stress and take as much time off as they need

Linoge

Sorry to hear about all of your losses.

I was just wondering did any of you take sick leave? It seems to me that it is unfair that you would have to take holidays (the irony) when you are stressed from your loss ie. sick.

I hate the way "sick" is always associated with the physical but mental sickness (in this case I mean stress), which is more likely to prevent you from being able to work than say a sore back, is not regarded as a legimate reason to take sick leave?:mad:

Eoin

If a doctor will give you a note, then I'm sure it could be considered sick leave. However, companies aren't obliged to pay sick leave either.

It seems to me that it is unfair that you would have to take holidays (the irony) when you are stressed from your loss ie. sick.

It's called "annual leave" - days that you might take off for holidays, or other personal reasons. At the risk of sounding insensitive, you can't expect a company to shoulder the entire cost.