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Bereavement | Employment Rights.

If you have suffered a Bereavement you are permitted to take time off during working hours to undertake arrangements that are required as a result of your loss, a Dependant in this instance is categorised as a close family member, or person you may live with (not in the case of a paid lodger), the details are covered under the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Pressure is now being brought on the Government to review this policy, a recent survey found that around 30% of people who have suffered a loss felt that their employer did not treat them with the degree of compassion they would have expected, and almost 90% agreed that an employer should have a policy covering bereavement.

Experience has shown that to expect an employee to carry on working without any statutory paid or unpaid leave can result in disruption and stress, having a very counter productive effect on the staff member and the rest of the employees. In reality many workers in this position have either been signed off sick or have needed to use allocated holiday entitlement.

A comparison can be drawn to an employee's rights on the birth of a child, where you may receive up to a year off work, but in the case of bereavement an employee does not have any rights to time off.

We will see what the Government does about the pressure being put upon them, it seems logical that a flexible approach to Bereavement should be adopted as mandatory leave can be wrong for some but not others, a government spokes person recently commented that a reason for not introducing a statutory bereavement leave entitlement is because people need different times to grieve.

This view is in contrast to the TUC who are calling for a minimum paid bereavement entitlement, plus the option to extend if required.

The onus presently rests with the Employer, and the aforementioned survey results showing only 30% of workers felt their employer could have treated them better, suggests that perhaps that legislation should be reviewed in this area.



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