Compassionate leave......only if one dies at the correct time!

ethical · 04-01-2016 05:50PM #1

I just had a call from a friend who lost a parent over the last few days and I was horrified to learn that if a parent or significant other passes away at a time other than a working day that there is NO COMPASSIONATE LEAVE! My, oh my, how the working conditions of teachers has deteriorated!(Add to that nurses and the Gardaí)
If your parent or partner or child is to pass away make sure its done on a working day,otherwise you will not get the compassionate leave or so the Union states quoting some circular or other from the good old Dept.
I must admit I was a bit taken aback by this as I assumed there would be no questions asked when there was a loss in the family. Even in private companies there is usually no questions asked as there are 5 days granted to the bereaved employee.Is this more of the HIDDEN DETAIL of Croke Parke,Haddington and Lansdowne Rd.agreements?
I find this situation very hard to take and my heart goes out to my friend or indeed for that matter to anyone that has lost a family member and then to find out that there is no compassionate leave.What a fcuking wonderful country we live in!

Stheno · 04-01-2016 05:54PM

ethical wrote: »

I just had a call from a friend who lost a parent over the last few days and I was horrified to learn that if a parent or significant other passes away at a time other than a working day that there is NO COMPASSIONATE LEAVE! My, oh my, how the working conditions of teachers has deteriorated!(Add to that nurses and the Gardaí)
If your parent or partner or child is to pass away make sure its done on a working day,otherwise you will not get the compassionate leave or so the Union states quoting some circular or other from the good old Dept.
I must admit I was a bit taken aback by this as I assumed there would be no questions asked when there was a loss in the family. Even in private companies there is usually no questions asked as there are 5 days granted to the bereaved employee.Is this more of the HIDDEN DETAIL of Croke Parke,Haddington and Lansdowne Rd.agreements?
I find this situation very hard to take and my heart goes out to my friend or indeed for that matter to anyone that has lost a family member and then to find out that there is no compassionate leave.What a fcuking wonderful country we live in!

The part in bold would not be true of all private companies.
There is no legal obligation on any employer to provide compassionate leave, be it public or private sector.

Gerry T · 04-01-2016 06:08PM

First of its tough for your friend and family, no matter what age this can be a difficult time. As you suggested, I had a similar situation and there were no questions asked and I took of for 3 days, they way it fell close to a weekend I was away for a week.
But in reality my workload was there for me when I got back so I did work long hr's to catch up, in till 9pm etc... Only the red hot items were taken up by others.

I might be wrong but aren't most teachers back on Wed or Thur this week ? so if their parent died a couple of days ago was the funeral today. Is there really a need for more time. I appreciate I don't know the circumstances and its very hard to generalise in these situations.

PS my wife works in DIT, she took of for a week, no problem at all, no questions asked.

killbillvol2 · 04-01-2016 06:16PM

Bereavement leave is not limited to deaths on working days. I rather carelessly lost both parents at weekends.

Your friend's issue would seem to be the school holidays? (Which isn't covered or mentioned in the information below).

In your friend's case a bit of common sense from the principal should allow him/her a few days.

And the arrangements haven't changed under any recent agreements - they were the same when my father died many years ago and when my mother died much more recently.

From the INTO website:

2.1 Bereavement involving a family member:

(a) Special Leave with pay is allowed to a teacher in the event of bereavement.
For the purposes of this sub-section, family relationships are defined as follows:

Immediate family - spouse (spouse also includes a person with whom the teacher is living as husband or wife) father, mother, step-father, step-mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, step-son and step-daughter.
Near relative - grandparent, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, grandchild, first cousin.
Inlaw - father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother in law, sister in law and son or daughter in-law.
Three days leave of absence is also available to teachers who are members of religious communities in respect of the death of a member of the teacher's immediate community.

(b) The maximum period of absence that shall be granted is:

5 consecutive in the case of a member of the immediate family
Absence for the minimum period necessary to attend the funeral subject to a maximum of 3 consecutive days in the case of a near relative or in-law

If the death occurs in the evening (after school hours) five or three consecutive days are allowed, as appropriate, starting from the following day;

If the death occurs at the weekend (Saturday/Sunday) five or three consecutive days are allowed, starting from the following day;

(c) In the case of immediate family, a substitute teacher may be employed for up to five days. In the case of near relative, in-law or members of Religious Communities a substitute teacher may be employed for the minimum period necessary to attend the funeral subject to a maximum of three days, except in the case of the death of a first cousin where a substitute teacher may only be employed for one school day.

The absence should be recorded as "Bereavement Leave".

seavill · 04-01-2016 06:39PM

ethical wrote: »

I just had a call from a friend who lost a parent over the last few days and I was horrified to learn that if a parent or significant other passes away at a time other than a working day that there is NO COMPASSIONATE LEAVE! My, oh my, how the working conditions of teachers has deteriorated!(Add to that nurses and the Gardaí)
If your parent or partner or child is to pass away make sure its done on a working day,otherwise you will not get the compassionate leave or so the Union states quoting some circular or other from the good old Dept.
I must admit I was a bit taken aback by this as I assumed there would be no questions asked when there was a loss in the family. Even in private companies there is usually no questions asked as there are 5 days granted to the bereaved employee.Is this more of the HIDDEN DETAIL of Croke Parke,Haddington and Lansdowne Rd.agreements?
I find this situation very hard to take and my heart goes out to my friend or indeed for that matter to anyone that has lost a family member and then to find out that there is no compassionate leave.What a fcuking wonderful country we live in!

Which circular?

TheDriver · 04-01-2016 08:24PM

Its 3/5 days to include hols, weekends etc and supposed to include day(s) of funerals. If the parent died last Fri, then 5 days are up by wed. Having said that, I have never been asked for proof of funeral/death day when entering this into the system

Lady_North1 · 05-01-2016 01:43PM

My mother died on a Thursday. As an SNA I only get three days which include weekends. Her funeral was on Monday. I had to get a doctors cert for time off for the actual funeral. Got a cert for the week, principal wasn't the issue, system is.

icebergiceberg · 05-01-2016 03:04PM

Lady_North1 wrote: »

My mother died on a Thursday. As an SNA I only get three days which include weekends. Her funeral was on Monday. I had to get a doctors cert for time off for the actual funeral. Got a cert for the week, principal wasn't the issue, system is.

My condolences regarding your mother.
How do you get a doctor's cert for time off for a funeral?

Lady_North1 · 05-01-2016 03:43PM

I just explained my situation and got a cert for "stress, not work related". Wasn't an issue with doc or the school.

TheDriver · 06-01-2016 12:50AM

Most get a doctors cert for the above reason for time off after death of a parent.

wingnut · 15-01-2016 08:46PM

killbillvol2 wrote: »

For the purposes of this sub-section, family relationships are defined as follows:

Three days leave of absence is also available to teachers who are members of religious communities in respect of the death of a member of the teacher's immediate community.

Wait what? death of a member of the teacher's immediate community. Open to abuse surely. Feast of maximum occupancy and all that.

icebergiceberg · 16-01-2016 01:55PM

wingnut wrote: »

Wait what? death of a member of the teacher's immediate community. Open to abuse surely. Feast of maximum occupancy and all that.

What does it mean? The 'immediate community'?

cupcake queen · 16-01-2016 02:30PM

icebergiceberg wrote: »

What does it mean? The 'immediate community'?

The phrase 'religious community' refers to nuns/priests/brothers who live together in groups - convents etc. The death of a member of that community would presumably be taken as on a par with a familial death. I assume it had more relevance years ago when there were so many nuns and priests working in schools.

Jamfa · 16-01-2016 02:35PM

icebergiceberg wrote: »

What does it mean? The 'immediate community'?

It's for a member of a religious community like a nun when another nun in their house dies. There are very few members of religious communities teaching nowadays so it doesn't really happen that often.

killbillvol2 · 16-01-2016 02:46PM

wingnut wrote: »

Wait what? death of a member of the teacher's immediate community. Open to abuse surely. Feast of maximum occupancy and all that.

I wouldn't be a particular fan of nuns or brothers but the suggestion that they somehow abused the system by taking bereavement leave under false pretences is absolutely ludicrous.

icebergiceberg · 16-01-2016 03:23PM

cupcake queen wrote: »

The phrase 'religious community' refers to nuns/priests/brothers who live together in groups - convents etc. The death of a member of that community would presumably be taken as on a par with a familial death. I assume it had more relevance years ago when there were so many nuns and priests working in schools.

Yeah thanks. It is what I had thought. (God be the days when the clergy used to ehh ...throw their weight around in schools.)

Compassionate leave......only if one dies at the correct time!

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