FMLA & Bereavement

HR Surprise

When an employee is out on FMLA and a close family member dies, are they still eligible for bereavement leave? Our policy allows 3 days bereavement leave in-state; 5 days for travel out-of-state. I know the person is still an employee, albeit unpaid, so how does this work? Would she get paid for the five days - then go back to being unpaid? It seems like this should be simple to figure out, but for some reason it's put me in a quandry!!

WT

The purpose of funeral leave is so that a working employee can go to the funeral of a close relative without loss of pay. As a general rule, if they are off the payroll, they are free to attend anything they wish. Look at your leave policy (if you do not have one, you should). Do you give benefits during leave without pay. This would include such things as accrual of vacation, payment of holidays, accrual of sick leave (if you have sick leave), or other benefits given to those on the payroll. The only benefit mandated by FMLA is health care coverage. If benefits are not given during leave without pay, then funeral leave would probably not be given either. Be consistent.

sonny

While we are on Bereavement, do most of you provide paid bereavement leave above and beyond ee paid time off or do you require them to use sick or vacation time? Thanks in advance.

AnaFL

At our company we have a bereavement leave policy which is separate from other paid leave policies (vacation, sick, personal days). If the death is of an immediate family member, and the ee is responsible for the funeral arrangements, we provide three days with pay, and if it's a non-immediate family member, then it's two days, and finally if it's a non-immediate family member and the ee has no funeral responsibily, then it's one day.

Ana

Carol CA

I would agree with WT that it would remain unpaid. We had a similar situation where an employee's family member passed away while we were on our plant shutdown. We did't give the employee additional bereavement leave, because they were already off work due to the shutdown, and the funeral took place during that time.

Good Luck!