Compassionate Leave from work - Death Certificate / Service leaflet required

[hystericglamma]

Hello all,

A colleague of mine unfortunately lost her half-brother recently. Our employer has said that she can have time off for the funeral, but in order for it to count as compassionate leave they have said that they would need sight of a copy of the Death Certificate. Since it's her half-brother access to this would be a bit difficult, and therefore the employer has asked for a copy of the service leaflet/programme from the funeral.

This seems a little bit insensitive to me - can they actually do this? What if there is no service booklet at the funeral? Any hel por comments would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Sidewinder]

Insensitive certainly seems to be the word - unbelievably so, and this sounds like a typical 'company policy' argument. Is this paid leave or unpaid leave? What is the 'company policy' for compassionate leave - in the company handbook, for example is there a clause relating to compassionate leave.

Unfortunately though, if this is an argument over qualification for paid time off, and they have a policy asking for proof to determine whether your colleague qualifies then they are within their rights to ask for evidence to support the request for leave. Surprisingly there is no legal right to take 'compassionate leave' (even though it would be a most heartless employer which refused a request for reasonable unpaid leave for a family funeral). The law does allow for 'reasonable time off for dependants' to cope with a family emergency, but this is limited to unpaid leave and for an event involving somebody who relies on you for assistance. It may be that your colleague's mother/father/brother relies on her and needs her assistance in order to attend the funeral themselves, in which case she could make a case under the 'time off to care for dependants' clause, but even there the employer could still ask for some proof.

Best approach is to have a word with her manager and explain how difficult it is to obtain proof, and if they are still being difficult then raise a grievance on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour.