Bereavement Leave Policies

efeldman

We are looking to revise our bereavement leave policy since we have had several people abusing the current policy, and would like some examples.   

Currently, our policy allows 3 days for the death of an immediate family member and an additional 2 days if traveling a distance of more than 500 miles.  Leave is granted at the manager's discretion and the employee must notify their manager as soon as possible that they intend to take leave.

IT HR

My policy currently allows for up to 5 days of leave for the death of an immediate family member.  Immediate family member is defined as a spouse, child, parent, brother, sister, grandparent, great-grandparent, grandchild, step parent, step sibling, mother or father-in-law, brother or sister-in-law or daughter or son-in law.

 

HRforME

Here is our policy:

"If a death occurs in the family of a full-time regular or part-time regular employee, the employee will be compensated for time lost from his regular work schedule not to exceed eight hours each day at his regular basic straight time in accordance with the following guidelines.  The employee will be granted up to five days off from work with pay in the event of the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling or comparable step relation; up to three days in the event of the death of a grandparent, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, or daughter-in-law; and one day in the event of the death of a relative not a member of your immediate family as defined herein.  Request for bereavement leave should be made to your immediate supervisor."

 

Past that, the employees are generally able to use other paid time off to make up any difference or to take unpaid time off.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

 

 

TXHRGuy

[quote user="efeldman"]

We are looking to revise our bereavement leave policy since we have had several people abusing the current policy, and would like some examples.   

Currently, our policy allows 3 days for the death of an immediate family member and an additional 2 days if traveling a distance of more than 500 miles.  Leave is granted at the manager's discretion and the employee must notify their manager as soon as possible that they intend to take leave.

[/quote]

 

In what form is the abuse taking?  If it's at the manager's discretion, is it managerial abuse or subordinate abuse?

efeldman

The abuse comes from not notifying their supervisor and take five days when it should have been three. 

HR36

How about when a "beloved" paternal grandmother dies twice???

LadyAnn

[quote user="efeldman"]The abuse comes from not notifying their supervisor and take five days when it should have been three. [/quote]

If they haven't notified there supervisor, then it is not managerial approved.  I wouldn't pay it - require them to either use their vacation/pto or go unpaid.  I would also write them up for not following company policy. No need to change your bereavement policy.

ninanewbie

Do any of your policies cover letting co-workers take time off to attend funeral of immediate relative of co-worker (spouse, child)?  We have had this come up when there is no wake that co-workers can attend at night.

efeldman

Employees can take a personal day to attend a non-relative funeral/wake.

ninanewbie

Yes, I know that.  

I was asking about perhaps 1 1/2 or 2 hours where employees could carpool to a coworker's relatives' funeral during work hours.  We have had some contention between hourly and exempt employees on things like this and was wondering if anyone had policy language.

pammcconnell

[quote user="ninanewbie"]

We have had some contention between hourly and exempt employees on things like this and was wondering if anyone had policy language.

[/quote]

If you’re talking about a couple of hours of paid vs unpaid time, then that's the inherent difference between being an hourly or salaried employee.  There are upsides and downsides of being both.  I'm not sure that you can or want to write policy to take every possibility into account.  Since it's not often that you have employees going to the funeral of a co-workers family member, I would use the policy as it is written.  You get paid time off for family members.  If your hourly employees have PTO time, then it would be an acceptable use for it.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

IT HR

I agree with Pammcconnell that you can't possibly put every situation in a policy.  I also think that you need to take these unusal sitations on a case by case basis.  For example, say you have the husband of one of your office employees pass away unexpectedly.  Most of the office knows the husband and wants to go to the funeral to support this employee.  I would give the employees that want to go the time off and not charge them any PTO (for both hourly and salaried).  If you have one person that wants to go to the funeral of a coworkers family member then I would have them use PTO or make up the time.  There is a big difference in these two situations.  I would be consistent with what you do for similar situations, but be aware that there are going to be majorly different situations that you may have to adjust your policy for, like these two I just mentioned.