Bereavement entitlement for family member ?

[ZR1cliff]

How many days would an employee be entitled too, for the death of a family member ?

TIA

[Kudos]

Depends how close.

Immediate I'd say a week or two. Child could be lot longer.

Grandparent a couple of days

[Kudos]

Depends how close.

Immediate I'd say a week or two. Child could be lot longer.

Grandparent a couple of days

[Butter Face]

No entitlement, it's at the employers discretion. Except for 'dependants' then it's a 'reasonable amount of time' but can be unpaid.

Check the contract to see if anything written in, it can be expected for the employee to take annual leave.

[Vaud]

https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants/your-ri...

...

In short, it varies based on policy.

On top of base policy, as a manager, if one of my team lost a parent/sibling I'd be extremely generous and give them a lot of paid leave and rally round to cover the gap.

If it was their auntie Marg in Australia they last saw in 2006, that they suddenly need to go there for the funeral for 3 weeks - less time as paid...

[Countdown]

ZR1cliff said:

How many days would an employee be entitled too, for the death of a family member ?

TIA

No automatic right to paid leave. You are entitled to a "reasonable" amount of unpaid leave where bereavement is of somebody classed as a dependent.

[Pommygranite]

Depends how they died. I mean you might need to give them 7-10 years off...

[ZR1cliff]

Thanks for the replies.

[Zeeky]

No statutory entitlement to bereavement leave. As above, check contractual entitlement. If it's a close relative, parent, child, or living with you, then you are entitled to time off to deal with administrative matters but not bereavement leave as such. Bereavement is usually a relevant fact to be considered when dealing with employment issues such as performance or conduct.

[bint]

For a grandparent I've given a couple of days before, and for one abroad 5 days.

I'm not sure what I'm getting paid/unpaid currently but I had to take a week to fly to Spain to see my sick father in the hope of bringing him and mum home. Unfortunately he died and due to Spanish fiesta we couldn't arrange cremation until the Monday of the following week. That combined with bringing my mum home, settling her in here with my family means I've had 2 weeks off.

I'll be going back on Wednesday as I had booked Tuesday off a while back as I was needing some time out - more so than ever now!

It really does depend on circumstances, closeness (grandparents that brought someone up in place of parents for example also differ) of relative, general work ethos and commitment etc also will play a factor.

[ZR1cliff]

bint said:

For a grandparent I've given a couple of days before, and for one abroad 5 days.

I'm not sure what I'm getting paid/unpaid currently but I had to take a week to fly to Spain to see my sick father in the hope of bringing him and mum home. Unfortunately he died and due to Spanish fiesta we couldn't arrange cremation until the Monday of the following week. That combined with bringing my mum home, settling her in here with my family means I've had 2 weeks off.

I'll be going back on Wednesday as I had booked Tuesday off a while back as I was needing some time out - more so than ever now!

It really does depend on circumstances, closeness (grandparents that brought someone up in place of parents for example also differ) of relative, general work ethos and commitment etc also will play a factor.

My sincere condolences for the loss of your Father, to you and your family.


My father died last Tuesday and I took the Tuesday and Wednesday off to be with my Mum and start sorting things out. I will be taking this Wednesday and Thursday (day of the funeral) off too. I do have holiday left, so it's no big deal, but I just wondered about my entitlement, as it's caught me cold and my heads full of loads of other things to think about.

[phil-sti]

Officially 3 days but most employers are sympathetic.

[Vaud]

phil-sti said:

Officially 3 days but most employers are sympathetic.

Where do you get this from?

[Rude-boy]

ZR1cliff said:

My sincere condolences for the loss of your Father, to you and your family.


My father died last Tuesday and I took the Tuesday and Wednesday off to be with my Mum and start sorting things out. I will be taking this Wednesday and Thursday (day of the funeral) off too. I do have holiday left, so it's no big deal, but I just wondered about my entitlement, as it's caught me cold and my heads full of loads of other things to think about.

The legal answer is already on here. The real World answer is "As long as they need, with due regard to the impact on the firm/company". You tend to find that the ones you would be happy letting have a few weeks off are the ones forcing their way back into the office other than a day here or there. The ones who want 3 weeks for auntie Morag from Aus are the those that you can manage just fine without...

[davek_964]

My mother died last year. I took a couple of days off at the time it happened.

By coincidence, the funeral occurred during a week I already had off - therefore I didn't actually need to book additional time off for that. However, at the end of the year when our holiday balances were being carried our HR person mailed me and told me that they felt it was unfair that I'd taken holiday at the time of my mothers funeral and they therefore felt that I should be credited 5 days. I said that I would have taken a few days anyway, since it was also my birthday that week (timing eh?) and therefore we compromised and I think they credited 2 or 3 days - so in total I probably had about a week.

[Pommygranite]

ZR1cliff said:

My sincere condolences for the loss of your Father, to you and your family.


My father died last Tuesday and I took the Tuesday and Wednesday off to be with my Mum and start sorting things out. I will be taking this Wednesday and Thursday (day of the funeral) off too. I do have holiday left, so it's no big deal, but I just wondered about my entitlement, as it's caught me cold and my heads full of loads of other things to think about.

Condolences. A tough time indeed.

I think its worth having a chat to work about whats right for you - I understand policy at times like these can actually become interpreted quite differently depending on your relationship with your boss.

[StormGrey]

Had similar a couple of months ago. 1 week after handing my notice in, my Mum died suddenly and unexpectedly.

Work were very good about it, and let me have as much paid time-off as I wanted off, despite the fact I was leaving the company. In the end I had just over 2 weeks off, which was about right really, as gave time to sort things out and attend funeral

Ultimately, there's no point in rushing back to work, especially if close family have died, as death tends to sort out your priorities in life - you're unlikely to be very efficient/focused when you go back to work with other things on your mind anyway

After a while, it can be nice to go back to work though, as it is good to keep busy and take your mind off things a little

[HoHoHo]

Vaud said:

phil-sti said:

Officially 3 days but most employers are sympathetic.

Where do you get this from?

Because it's rubbish.

There is no officlal entitlement, it's down to your employer or terms of employment.

[HoHoHo]

Vaud said:

phil-sti said:

Officially 3 days but most employers are sympathetic.

Where do you get this from?

Because it's rubbish.

There is no officlal entitlement, it's down to your employer or terms of employment.

[Vaud]

HoHoHo said:

Because it's rubbish.

There is no officlal entitlement, it's down to your employer or terms of employment.

I know that...