Bereavement Leave is a temporary leave that is provided to the employees on the demise of any of their family members or other loved ones including friends. It is different from the other scheduled leave. Naturally, nobody wants to lose their close ones but death is inevitable so, bereavement leave reduces the employee’s emotional and mental pressure that arises from the death of the close ones by giving him time to grieve.
The idea behind leave is to give some time to the employee to make preparations, attend the burial, make other arrangements relating to the funeral, spend time with family members, connect with the life insurance providers, manage the property of the deceased, and settle the financial and legal issues that are related to deceased. The rule for bereavement leave is generally given in the handbook of the employee.
Is bereavement leave given under US federal law?
It is not mentioned under any of the provisions of federal law, it is totally upon the discretion of the employer either to provide it or not but some states recognized the importance of this leave such as California, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington.
The laws and regulations regarding bereavement leave differ from one state to another. For example, In California, eligible employees are entitled to get a maximum of 5 days of bereavement leave under the California family rights Act (CFRA).
whereas in Washington the bereavement leave is given for a maximum of 3 days provided on the death of a close one under section 375-31-250 of the Wash. Admin. Code. (WAC).
In Oregon, bereavement leave is governed by the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) which clarifies that the employer having a minimum of 25 employees should provide bereavement leave to his qualified employees. The maximum period of bereavement leave under the OFLA is two weeks.
Almost 90% of employers choose to offer this leave to their employees as per the reports of the Society of Human Resource Management.
What is the average time of the bereavement leave?
As we have seen above the maximum bereavement leave time differs from one state to another. On average, the companies generally offer paid leave for three to five days. Where companies, if it thinks fit that the employees need more time to heal, extend it for up to two weeks also.
Who is eligible to get the bereavement leave?
Due to the lack of any guidance from federal law, it depends upon the companies to determine the question that which employees are eligible to get bereavement leave. Some companies allow this leave only on the death of close family members but others provide this leave on the death of any of the loved ones of one employee including co-employees or friends.
Whether all bereavement leave paid?
The leave may be paid or unpaid. Because federal law is silent on the question of this leave, employers can get the answer from the legislation of their concerned state. There are some state that offers paid this leave such as California and Oregon.
Why is it important for a company to create a bereavement leave policy?
- It is also called compassionate leave. Companies generally add policies regarding this leave to support their employees in their bad times by showing sympathy to improve work-life balance.
- Caring attitudes towards employees motivate them to remain connected to the company for a longer period.
- It gives the employees time to heal and cope with the situation so, that they can perform their job well once they are back to work.
What is bereavement leave used for?
The bereavement leave is a period of leave either paid or unpaid offered to an employee by the employer at the time of the death of a loved one or a family member. The primary objective of offering bereavement leave is to grieve and cope with their stress without adding any work responsibilities to them.
The bereavement leave grants the employee enough time to attend the funeral or memorial service, spend time with the family and loved ones, and begin the process of healing and moving ahead of the loss.
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