By Marilyn Jones

Losing a family member is difficult enough without having to worry about taking time off from work. An even greater concern for employees is the prospect of being prevented from attending services, or not being able to pay respects with time enough to grieve. Knowing what your Bereavement Leave benefits are can help you be prepared, and lessen some of the stress surrounding the death of a family member.

The United States has no specific Federal law that grants Bereavement Leave to individuals, while protecting their positions. However, the Family Medical Leave Act does provide for unpaid leave. It guarantees up to 12 weeks without pay to take care of an ailing family member.

Bereavement Leave is considered a “benefit” from the employer – not a protected right – and varies by state and by industry. Generally, it is treated as paid leave.

Most employers require employees to be a regular full-time employee with at least six months of continuous employment to qualify for Bereavement Leave. Others include part-time employees in their policies as well. Proof of death may be required by any firm or organization. And many companies qualify the benefit by adding “at the discretion of your manager”.

Federal Employees, both full and part-time, get 21 days of Sick Leave per year that may be used for Bereavement purposes. This is a marked difference from private industry practice that limits use of Sick Leave to illness, or to keep scheduled appointments with Health Care Professionals. Office of Personnel Management policy also allows Annual Leave to full-time employees coping with family loss.

State Governments vary in their Bereavement Leave policies. For instance, California and Tennessee provide for three days of paid leave, while New York provides four days of paid leave. Yet, at the local level (towns, schools, courts), New York has no common Bereavement Leave policy. It’s a good example of the way this “benefit” varies across the country. Basically, it all depends on who you work for, and where you are located.

Major corporations such as Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies typically give up to three days of paid leave to employees, for those who have lost an immediate family member. The definition of “immediate family member” is generally an employee’s spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild or the spouse’s parent. Certain firms’ policies include the immediate family of the spouse, i.e., in-laws. For the death of a relative that is not immediate family, the benefit is generally for one day.

Pfizer – a more generous example – gives Bereavement Leave to both full-time and part-time employees. It allows 40 continuous hours of paid leave for the death of immediate, in-law and foster family members. If the employee combines that continuous 40 hours with a weekend, it translates into a full seven day paid leave benefit.

Small businesses have a broad range of Bereavement Leave policies. Most policies state the Bereavement Leave is “at the discretion of the manager”. Since a small business may be similar to “family”, you may have more (or less) Bereavement Leave benefit, at the discretion of the Owner/Manager.

Always check with your employer to verify what the organization’s leave policy provides for its employees, whether paid or unpaid, and the time limitations you have to work with.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Planning a funeral. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.