While everyone handles grief in their own way, it’s a good idea to have a formal system in place for when your employees need time off to deal with the death of a loved one. In this article, you will learn exactly what bereavement leave is, who is entitled to it, how long it is, what family is included, whether it is usually paid and some typical bereavement procedures.

Bereavement leave is a period where an employer will offer employees paid time off to deal with the death of a family member or loved one. On top of mourning the loss, there are many other elements that people have to deal with when they lose a loved one. For example, funeral arrangements, notifying other family members and other post-death matters. Bereavement leave provides a certain amount of leave to allow employees to deal with this.

Who Is Entitled to Bereavement Leave?

There are currently no federal employment laws that require bereavement leave to be given to employees. There is only one exception to this – the state of Oregon, which has made it a legal requirement to provide bereavement leave to all employees. No other states have this legal requirement, so bereavement leave is only provided at the discretion of the employer. However, there may be some other state-specific laws that require employers to provide certain types of leave, like vacation leave, sick leave, personal leave, leave to attend a funeral or bereave the loss of a loved one. So it’s a good idea to check your state laws for anything you may be unaware of regarding employees’ leave. There are also no laws in the UK for bereavement leave. However, some other European countries have imposed such laws. For example, Spain allows two days of paid leave for a relative and four days if traveling is required to attend a funeral. Most employers offer some kind of bereavement leave to their employees. Generally, they would allow a day off for the funeral and possibly some extra days if the employee was very close to the deceased or was involved in post-death affairs.

How Long Is Bereavement Leave?

Bereavement leave varies a lot depending on the relationship between the employee and the deceased. So, there generally is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to how long bereavement leave is. A rule of thumb is for at least one day of bereavement leave for aunts, uncles, cousins, other non-immediate family members or friends, and three days for immediate family members like spouses, children, siblings, parents and grandparents. Many will think this seems extremely low. However, this will often be only what is stated on a contract, and employers will deal with each case of bereavement leave as it comes. It should also be taken into consideration that some people may have to travel far or even abroad to attend a funeral of a relative. In these cases, it may be appropriate to come up with a flexible working plan if remote work is an option, or they may be able to pick up extra shifts at a later date if that’s necessary. There was recently an effort in New York to permit up to 12 weeks of bereavement leave, but this was vetoed by the governor so did not get passed. As grief is a complex emotion, it’s impossible to know how your employees will react and how much time off they will need. Some employees may need several weeks to grieve and get their affairs in order, while others may cope better by delving straight back into work. If you have the luxury of a person or an HR team who can deal with each individual bereavement case, it may be a good idea to hear out the individual’s needs and come up with a plan that suits everyone involved. However, it’s important that you have a structured process in place that is easy to follow. Also, make sure that your employees are aware of what they need to do when they, unfortunately, need to request bereavement leave and have an idea of how much time off they should expect.

Which Family Does Bereavement Leave Cover?

Each person’s familial relationships differ greatly, so it’s difficult to create one rule for all. More leave will be granted for immediate family members; these are considered as:

Spouses Domestic partners Children Parents Siblings Grandparents

Adoptive, step, foster family members or in-laws are also included in immediate family bereavement policies. For non-immediate family members, leave is usually still granted, but will probably be for fewer days. Non-immediate family members are considered as:

Aunts Uncles Nieces Nephews Cousins

Many organizations will also include people with whom the employee has a particularly close relationship or other people with whom the employee co-habits. Each situation will be different, so it’s important that there is a good degree of trust between the employee and the employer. If you are skeptical about the legitimacy of your employee’s bereavement leave request, there may be a deeper issue you have to explore.

Do Employees Get Paid for Bereavement Leave?

Since there are no regulations surrounding bereavement leave in the US and the UK, there are no laws to say that employees must be paid for bereavement leave. However, it’s extremely rare for an organization to not provide paid leave for at least one day of the funeral, but many will provide more. Of course, this will depend on the closeness of the relationship. Some organizations may consider offering unpaid leave for bereavement. However, it’s important to take into account the seriousness of the situation. The point of bereavement leave is to give the person time to grieve and get their head in the right space to be able to return to their normal life. Forcing people to come back to work early or leaving them worrying about money would only have detrimental effects on their mental health, and they would not be very productive at work. Offering employees a reasonable amount of paid leave to allow them the time to get everything in order will certainly benefit everyone involved. Losing a loved one is difficult enough – the last thing you would want to do is subject your employees to messy and unclear processes. Here is a typical bereavement policy that should be in place and your employees should all be aware of:

Employees Should Notify Their Supervisor as Soon as Possible

Death often comes at inconvenient times, and it may not be possible for employees to get in touch with their employer to inform them before they are due to work. However, it’s important your employee knows that they must make an effort to inform their supervisor as soon as possible, so that they can be prepared and start making arrangements for bereavement leave. It is also common practice that when an employee leaves work early due to a death, that day is not when bereavement leave starts.

Let Your Employee Know the Duration and When You Expect Them Back

You will probably have a set amount of days that you will provide for bereavement leave, dependent on the relationship of the deceased to your employee. Keep in mind, you may need to extend this for special circumstances.

Have a Plan if They Need More Time Off

People deal with death very differently. Some people may require more time to deal with the death of a loved one than others. It may also be necessary to allow people to use sick leave or vacation days. You should also keep the door open to allow flexible or remote working for your employees. Perhaps they can work from home, do hours that suit them better if they have caring needs or change their work schedule.

Asking for Proof of Death

This is a controversial process, and many organizations do not require employees to provide proof of the death of a loved one. However, if the employee has issues with attendance, is on a warning or you are skeptical about their request, you can ask for proof of the death. This can usually be an easy document to obtain through the funeral home.

Make Sure Their Work Is Covered

There is often no way to plan for an employee taking leave. So, they may have outstanding tasks at work that need to be taken care of. You do not want deadlines to be missed or for your employee to have a mountain of work to return to after their bereavement leave.

Schedule a Meeting Upon Their Return

It’s a very good idea to schedule a meeting with the employee upon their return to work. The purpose of this is to check if the employee is fit to return to work and to give them any updates from when they were on leave. Make sure you have a set of return to work interview questions to ask your employee.

Explore the Possibility of Grief Counseling

If you have a larger organization that provides counseling as a benefit, it would be a good idea to provide grief counseling as part of this. This will ensure that employees are fit to get back to work and give them any additional support they may require.

How To Talk to an Employee About Grief

Dealing with such a complex emotion can be difficult for many. Discussing grief while maintaining the employee-employer relationship can be difficult for people to grasp.

Don’t Be Interrogative

While you may need to find out the details of the death to understand the relationship between the employee and the deceased and to make sure they are fit to return to work, make sure it doesn’t look like you’re interrogating them about the legitimacy of their claim.

Reassure Them Their Job Is Taken Care of While They’re Gone

The last thing people want to be dealing with while grieving a loss is work. Make sure that you do have a good plan in place to cover all of their tasks to ensure they are not coming back to a heavier workload or have a mess to clean up.

Ask Them What They Need

Make sure you have asked your employee if there’s anything that you as the employer can do to help them with the transition back into work. This may be as simple as lightening their workload or as much as offering flexible working or changing their shift pattern.

Final Thoughts

While you never want your employees to have to take bereavement leave, this will inevitably happen over and over again in your organization. Making sure that you have a streamlined process to make it as easy as possible for your employee and yourself as an employer is extremely beneficial. Remember that communication is key, as with every employee-employer matter.