bereavement policy
PAhr
165 Posts
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-21-02 AT 12:38PM (CST)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-21-02 AT 12:36 PM (CST)[/font]
Our bereavement policy states 3 paid days off up to and including the day of the funeral for immediate family members. If necessary, additional time off may be arranged through your supervisor. Our policy in the handbook doesn't require proof of the death and we generally don't ask.
An employee's Grandfather died. Initially she was unsure where and when the funeral would be held (the family requested an autopsy and although he was living in Virginia, his home town was in Pennsylvania). She called in Sunday and notified us of his death and spoke of needing time off but unsure when exactly. On Monday, she called in to say she was leaving that day for Virginia and that the funeral would be Wednesday and that she would return to work on Thursday. She called Tuesday and spoke to her supervisor and informed him that the funeral was going to be held in the late afternoon on Wednesday and because of that (and the fact that she was five months pregnant and three states away) she couldn't return on Thursday as planned. She asked her supervisor if she could just return on Monday and that would allow her some extra rest time and the opportunity to be with her family. He agreed. She returned Monday.
About two weeks later she was written up for attendance. The entire situation got messy. She insisted she did what was required in the handbook in the best time frame that she could. The head of HR said the request for additional time off never went through her so whatever her supervisor said was moot. The head of HR called her in and told her she had to prove her Grandfather died, she wanted an obituary from the paper in HIS hometown, the funeral service card and proof that she was there in attendance. When the woman asked why, my boss told her that the company liked to send flowers to the funeral home. Then she told her that she had three days to produce it or she would be fired. The woman brought the information in but I could tell she was very upset about what happend. She also said that she knew noone else in the company had been treated this way.
What would be the legal ramifications, if any, for not following the bereavement policy with every employee or requiring information from one employee and not another? Would it be a good idea to re-write the policy to three days off for in state funerals and five days off for out of state funerals (that way noone has to call and get an approval for more time)? And if we require proof of death and proof of attendance for out of state funerals, should we do the same for in state funerals?
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Our bereavement policy states 3 paid days off up to and including the day of the funeral for immediate family members. If necessary, additional time off may be arranged through your supervisor. Our policy in the handbook doesn't require proof of the death and we generally don't ask.
An employee's Grandfather died. Initially she was unsure where and when the funeral would be held (the family requested an autopsy and although he was living in Virginia, his home town was in Pennsylvania). She called in Sunday and notified us of his death and spoke of needing time off but unsure when exactly. On Monday, she called in to say she was leaving that day for Virginia and that the funeral would be Wednesday and that she would return to work on Thursday. She called Tuesday and spoke to her supervisor and informed him that the funeral was going to be held in the late afternoon on Wednesday and because of that (and the fact that she was five months pregnant and three states away) she couldn't return on Thursday as planned. She asked her supervisor if she could just return on Monday and that would allow her some extra rest time and the opportunity to be with her family. He agreed. She returned Monday.
About two weeks later she was written up for attendance. The entire situation got messy. She insisted she did what was required in the handbook in the best time frame that she could. The head of HR said the request for additional time off never went through her so whatever her supervisor said was moot. The head of HR called her in and told her she had to prove her Grandfather died, she wanted an obituary from the paper in HIS hometown, the funeral service card and proof that she was there in attendance. When the woman asked why, my boss told her that the company liked to send flowers to the funeral home. Then she told her that she had three days to produce it or she would be fired. The woman brought the information in but I could tell she was very upset about what happend. She also said that she knew noone else in the company had been treated this way.
What would be the legal ramifications, if any, for not following the bereavement policy with every employee or requiring information from one employee and not another? Would it be a good idea to re-write the policy to three days off for in state funerals and five days off for out of state funerals (that way noone has to call and get an approval for more time)? And if we require proof of death and proof of attendance for out of state funerals, should we do the same for in state funerals?
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Comments
Also, I don't know if an employee that has an out-of-state funeral should be given more bereavement leave than in-state funerals. I would be worried of those individuals that would abuse the policy and state that they have an out-of-state funeral just so that they could receive extra time off. However, documentation would cover that issue. Also, sometimes individuals that have in-state funerals will need more time also -- especially if the family member is a mother or father and a home has to be taken care of, lawyers have to be contacted, etc. I would suggest either more funeral leave for all employees or those employees that need more funeral leave can either utilize unpaid leave or vacation leave. Hope this helps out. Good Luck!
And I hate to say this but it wasn't a turf war between the HR head and the supervisor. The HR head didn't like the woman. She made numerous comments about her that I don't care to share. A few months after the woman was terminated, the head of HR was terminated for "questionable practices" but everyone is tight lipped as to exactly what got her fired. Then a few months after that the manager/director of HR was asked to resign or face termination (again who knows why). I Have taken over head of HR position and one of my job duties was to look over some old personel files to see if I could find errors (I have to basically see if we did anything wrong) and come up with new or improved policies to deter future problems. That is one reason I want to have a very detailed bereavement policy.
>he feels she will just go away.
I hope he is right, but, I am not nearly as optimistic as your attorney. I also think cleaning up the bereavement policy is the least of your problems. If you're the head of HR and people are being terminated left and right in that department and you have no idea why, that's a bit odd. Best of luck to you. Watch your back.
Anyway...back to the bereavement policy. We give up to three days paid leave period for employees to take care of arrangements, funerals, etc. It is spelled out what immediate family is. Most employees take at least 3 days for the death of a close family member. If they need more time, it comes out of their PTO banks. As far as requiring employees to prove the death of a family member, it used to be a policy that a copy of the obit had to be submitted to HR. I thought this a bit harsh because, fool that I am, I like to trust people until they give me reason not to. I asked the question of what happens if there is not an obit (some people don't do this). I asked if a picture of the employee standing with the deceased in the coffin would suffice. Folks didn't like this either! Anyway...we just decided not to require proof of death unless someone's mother or father dies two or three times in one year.
The company usually sends flowers in the case of a death, so it would be easy to find out if someone was trying to cheat the company.
Why aren't you talking to the attorney representing the company directly? How can you fix the problem(s) if you don't know what they are. Something is probably getting lost in the translation when you're relying on second hand information being passed on to you from the person who is conversing with the attorney.
Sonny, I will try to explain in brief. The employee in question signed up for FMLA in March, 2001 for a pregnancy. I didn't begin working for this company until May, 2001 so I don't know much about that. In mid June the Head of HR said I was to write the employee up for attendance, which I did. The employee claimed her absences were covered under FMLA and the only other time she missed was when her Grandfather died and she claimed that was also to be excused because the employee handbook stated that extra excused time could be granted through her supervisor. The employee went to her supervisor the next day and said if we didn't remove the write-up she was going to file a complaint with the DOL because all but one absence (FUNERAL) was covered under FMLA. Our company policy says three unexcused absences results in a write-up. My boss told me to have a meeting with her and explain to her that she wasn't on FMLA, her write-up would stand and that she had five days to get the FMLA paperwork filled out or she would be terminated. So I did. She came in later that week with the forms and when my boss saw that it said she needed intermittent leave, she told me to tell her it was filled out incorrectly and would need to be filled out again. It was at that meeting that the employee said she had actually filed a complaint with the DOL for violating FMLA guidelines. I left the meeting at that point to advise my boss as to what the employee stated. It was then that my boss came in and told the employee that she had three days to bring in all the funeral information or she would be terminated. After that meeting my boss said I needed to call her doctor and tell the doctor that the employee needed to be on full FMLA leave. The doctor told me that she had already filled out the papers twice and that she would not fill them out a third time as she felt that they already contained the correct information. I advised the employee at a later meeting (on my boss's behalf) that the paperwork needed to be filled out by her next doctor's appointment which gave her almost two weeks or she would be termination. The employee was terminated by me about a week later for something that had nothing to do with this. My boss wrote the termination letter but she didn't want to sit in on the termination. So everything that was done, was done on my bosses say so, I just carried out the meetings. The DOL ruled in the employee's favor on her complaint that we violated her rights to FMLA. They never really looked into her termination. She has since filed a complaint with the EEOC which we just learned about recently that says the employee claims she was discriminated against based on her gender and that we retaliated against her because she filed a complaint with the DOL, which she claims was the real reason for her termination.
Now, I knew the situation behind the employee's termination and we terminated her based on information that a supervisor gave us. The supervisor that made the inital accusations against her at first said that he witnessed something but when asked by the DOL investigator about what he saw he changed his story to he "assumed" that was what she was doing. He has since signed an affidavit saying that he actually witnessed the offense. I honestly think her termination was based on that offense. I feel we acted on the information we had and terminated her for good cause. I see DonD and Sonny, that you worked for the government. Should we worry that even though we terminated for good reason, that the EEOC will still find in her favor?
I also have one other question. In her complaint there is an N-5 form that says check any reason that you believe this organization treated you this way. She checked sex, retaliation and non-job related handicap/disability: complicated pregnancy. The employee's doctor called me a few days before her termination to advise the company that the employee's unborn child had a birth defect (not that the employee had a disability) that would require close monitoring. We discussed what the employee needed to do as far as testing and that she may need to miss work for these tests. I asked at that time if full FMLA was needed and she said the employee could continue working but that because the employee had to go to a larger hospital she would not be able to schedule the appointments around work. I agreed that the child's health was first and foremost. A few days later I was told by my boss to terminate her based on the information the supervisor gave us. My boss told me to call her in an hour before the employee's shift and tell her we needed to discuss FMLA issues. The employee's mother called a few hours later and spoke with me in some detail about her daughter's unborn baby's condition and asked, if we were going to fire her daughter that day, to let her know so she could come pick her up. I transfered the call to my boss. A few minutes later my boss said to terminate the employee and ask her before she left if she wanted us to call her mother. She said it was the employee's choice to get a ride. It wasn't our job to be a "taxi service".
I went to my supervisor's boss and asked how to conduct the termination and he reiterated that the employee was to be terminated as my boss saw fit. When I asked about the implications of her baby's condition he said we had no knowledge of any defects. When I came out of the meeting my boss said that the baby's supposed defects had nothing to do with the termination and that as far as she was concerned there was nothing wrong with the employee's baby and that it was nothing more than a ploy to try to save the employee's job. My boss also said the employee should feel lucky because the company was still going to offer COBRA even though the employee didn't deserve it. When I asked about the investigation into the allegations, my boss said the only two people involved were the supervisor and the employee. She went on to say that when something happend where only one person witnessed the offense we have to believe the witness because the other person has a reason to lie (in case you are wondering, I already changed the investigation policy). My actions were based solely on what my boss relayed to me. I acted in good faith that we were doing what was best for the company. I have decided that it would be in my best interest to part with this company, but jobs in my expertise are not readily available in this area. Will I have to tell the EEOC everthing I know (even if it's not documented)? I don't want to be personally liable for anything since I acted on the behalf of others.