Bereavement Leave

[shywazz]

Hello, Ill keep this brief, neighbours aunty sadly passed away, long illness, his employer gave permission to attend the service etc in Swansea, giving one days paid leave, i've taken alook at his companys terms of contract, which states, paid leave up to 5 days for parents,sister, brother, inlaws, grand-parents etc,
Aunts are not therefore mentioned, so i informed him that the aunt is classed as out-law, have i informed him correct ?

He did take 3 days off work to drive to Swansea and stay with the family during such times, i've been looking on the web upon his behalf, and have come across that

701-01 Sick Leave - General Policy

is absent due to the death of family members who are not covered under 704-05 An employee may use up to three days accrued sick leave for this purpose and two additional days to attend or arrange funeral services out of area.

Can someone shed any light upon this issue, enabling him to approach his employer regarding getting paid for the time he took off, i don't want to give him false information in such a matter...

[Sidewinder]

Sorry Shywazz - paid bereavement leave is solely a matter for company policy. The law does allow for 'reasonable' time off to cope with an emergency connected to a dependant family member, and if it were the case that your friend's parent needed special support in coping with the death of his/her sister, or some other drastic effect on an immediate family member then the case could be stretched. The law however only makes provision for unpaid time off, not paid, so it would appear that your friend's employer has exercised some latitude already in paying for the day off on the day of the funeral. They are certainly not obliged to extend any further paid leave.

The example which you have given appears to be for an American company who seem willing to extend unused sick leave. I have never come across this personally but that is not to say that some UK companies will offer more generous bereavement leave than is neccessary. It remains though a matter of policy for the individual employer. Does your friend not have any unused holiday entitlement which might be used to offset the time off?