Bereavement Policy

Does anyone have a bereavement policy for the 4 day workweek. At present we have some employees that work 5 days and most who work the 4 day work week at present our Bereavement policy reads as such:

Bereavement leave is disigned to provide employees with paid time away from work to grieve and to handle matters related to a death in their family.

Full-time employees may receive up to three (3) paid days off for Bereavement leave for an immediate family member. Employees who work a 5 day workweek will be paid for 3 consecutive work days. (We would like to add this clause here Employees who work the 4-day workweek, when the bereavement leave falls during their reqular scheduled day off, their regular scheduled day off will be included as one of their bereavement days therefore the employee will only be paid for 2 bereavement absences which will total 19hrs). Immediate family includes the following and so it continues.

Does anyone else have the same senario? and how did you solve this? or does anyone have suggestions. Help
Thank you

Comments

  • 5 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Those who work the 5 day work week receive a total of 24 hours of bereavement. I would pay the 4 day ee's the same 24 hours for bereavement so that they all receive exactly the same amount of time so no one can claim someone else is getting more. When we had some ee's on a 4 day work week, that is how we paid them their paid time off, 8 hours/day regardless.
  • I would agree w/ Ray A: If you provide all EEs, those who work 5-day wk and those who work 4-day wk, w/ the same number of HOURS of bereavement leave, everyone is treated fairly. Defining the bereavement leave entitlement as 24 hrs, instead of 3 days, allows to to give all f/t EEs the same amount of paid leave, regardless of their work schedule.

    It looks like the 4-day EEs would lose under the policy you propose-- since they would be eligible for only 19 hrs bereavement leave, while 5-day EEs would be eligible for 3 days (= 24 hrs?)?

    While we do not allow compressed workweeks here, we do account for all leave in terms of hours (not days) for all EEs, exempt and non-exempt... and it allows us to be more flexible in addressing variying situations.... including allowing non-exempt EEs to take partial days of bereavement leave, etc.
  • Thank you for your responses. We will switch to the 24hrs for the bereavement, it will make the time easier to handle. Our other question thou is the employees who work the 4 day workweek should the bereavement fall during there day off they would be away from work a total of the 19hrs for bereavement plus the hours for their day off(9.50) hrs we would like to incorporate the day off hours along with the bereavement hours to total the 24 hours should the bereavement time fall during their day off. I know it sounds like alot of work but the 5 day work people think their are being cheated, and the 4 day work people feel they will be cheated also if they get their day off(9.50hrs) and only 2 days (19hrs) bereavement. Could anyone address this issue.
  • First, I am not agreeing with our policy and know you are addressing the 10 vs 8 hour days. However, ours reads (Tells how many days (up to 3 for instance for Spouse, Parent, Son/Daughter, Brother/Sister, Step Parent, Step child.)
    "Days lost qualify for pay reimbursement only if they are regularly scheduled days of work preceding and including the day of burial. In this period of absence, including non-working and/or no-scheduled work days, compensation for the absence shall not be provided for those non-scheduled work days. An employee will be paid (8 hours x base rate) for each day of leave."
    What this all means is that we would pay up to 24 hours from time of death through date of burial for any regularly scheduled work day. (if mother died on Friday and buried on Monday, you could pay for Friday only, since Sat and Sun are not scheduled work days and you pay for only 3 "consecutive days" or you could pay for Friday and Monday and say that these are the only work days between the date of death and through date of burial. If employee didn't work on Friday, you wouldn't owe for that day. You would handle this just like a holiday that the employee would not get paid if it was scheduled on their regular day off.)
    (Could word something like you will pay up to 24 hours based on the employee's normal work schedule for days between the date of death and the date of burial if the days are normal work days. Or something like this.)
    Anyway, my grips are that some people take longer than others between death and burial (ie. Blacks in south normally have about a week between these where those of the Jewish faith bury the next day.) Also, you may really need a day after burial if travel involved or you may need a day or two after burial if you are executor of the estate (which I guess would get into personal or vacation time.)
    I've gone on too long. Let me know if you have questions. [email]ewarthen@newcombspring.com[/email]

    E Wart
  • TY: Your policy should first start with one very important key point, Bereavement/funeral leave is not paid as a result of one's qualifying relative dying. With that being established it becomes easy to administer the policy/benefit and pay according to schedule days off for the purpose of travel to the funeral or to be primarily involved in the necessary arrangements of the funeral itself. Our employees scheduled to work on a Saturday would get funeral pay, while that employee who was scheduled to be off would not get that days pay for being away from their scheduled day off!

    PORK
Sign In or Register to comment.