Time Off: What Policies Do Most Organizations Set for Bereavement Leave?

We’ve had a string of sad situations recently that have really tested our bereavement leave policy. We currently offer three days off for the death of an employee’s immediate family member. One situation involved the death of a family member on the East Coast, for which our employee wanted five days of bereavement leave. Another situation involved the death of a person who worked in our office, and a third involved a miscarriage, which brought up the issue of whether a fetus qualified as “immediate family.” So, what rules do you suggest to address to whom bereavement policies apply, who gets leave, and how much? —Sheldon K., HR Specialist in Santa Clarita

Sheldon’s question resonates with many organizations struggling to balance ongoing business needs with the ethical, moral, and morale issues involved with employees’ bereavement leave requests. As Sheldon points out, some of the most complicated aspects of administering bereavement leave revolve around which members of an employee’s immediate or extended family trigger the leave benefit, how much time off to allow, and how to apply the leave in unusually tragic situations.

No state or federal law requires an organization to allow time off or pay for time off for bereavement. (Note that union contracts may include such benefits.) However, most employers recognize that not giving employees either some amount of paid time or at least some amount of excused time off would be an employee morale nightmare. Some employers restrict bereavement leave to situations in which an employee’s immediate family member dies, but this may raise problems with determining who falls into that category.

Defining Immediate Family

If there ever was a “typical family,” currently this term is rather fluid. For example, many people have been raised by grandparents, godparents, or aunts. They may live with step-family or other nonblood relatives, or they may have more than two sets of grandparents because of divorce. Furthermore, in California, any list of immediate family must include registered domestic partners, as well as their children and parents, if those relatives are included for spouses.

Whatever the reality of current demographics, many employers define immediate family in a relatively narrow way for bereavement leave purposes—e.g., parents, step-parents, children, step-children, grandparents, registered domestic partners, children of a domestic partner—and limit any paid benefit to this group. Difficulties may arise with this type of policy, as there will be occasions when an organization will have to deny the bereavement leave benefit for employees who are truly grieving over the death of someone who was close to them but not on the list. However, if exceptions are made for some employees and not others, an employer runs the risk of legal bias claims.

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Further, most organizations go by the honor system and do not require employees to provide documentation (such as a birth or marriage certificate) that the person who died was actually an immediate family member, which can lead some employees to abuse the benefit. Some employers try to limit misrepresentation by asking the employee to provide the newspaper death notice or a funeral service program, which sometimes lists names of surviving family members.

Sheldon’s question about the loss of a fetus opens a highly contentious, emotional, and controversial subject, which includes a religious component that could be fraught with legal risk. No organization should attempt to define this in a policy. Options for handling such a situation include referring the employee to your employee assistance program and/or granting personal leave time off.

Considerations for Bereavement Time Off

Employers want to be humane in allowing an appropriate amount of time for a person to deal with grief. Your organization’s size and industry as well as the established culture will impact your decisions regarding how much time you can consistently and realistically give employees for bereavement leave. Your company’s particular employee demographics (e.g., whether a large number of your employees have family who live very far away) may mean that employees realistically will need more time to handle such situations.

Five Policy Pointers

Here are several tips for employers to keep in mind when creating or revising a bereavement leave policy.

1. Be consistent about who qualifies for leave. Do not make exceptions, for example, if an employee pleads that someone not on your list of family members was actually like a parent, sibling, or child to him or her. Inconsistency is the main cause of morale issues as well as an opening for a discrimination claim.
2. Establish an unpaid personal leave policy, which allows employees with at least a certain amount of service, e.g., six months, to apply for an excused absence of up to a certain amount of time, e.g., four weeks. This policy may help employers deal with time-off requests that do not fall into the more common limits of a bereavement leave.
3. Consider implementing a very broad policy, such as a “bereavement allowance,” which has specific parameters, and requiring a written employee “affidavit” or statement. (Click here for sample policy and employee bereavement statement.) This type of policy would allow an organization to avoid defining “family” of any kind. Although a few employees may try to take advantage of such a broad policy, those same people would probably do so with any type of bereavement policy. In fact, by combining a broad policy with an employee statement, misuse may actually be curtailed.
4. If employees have accrued time in a paid time off (PTO) bank and want extended time off, you can require that accrued PTO be used before granting any additional time without pay.
5. Unusual situations such as employee deaths should probably be handled on a case-by-case basis, separately from bereavement leave.

Conclusion 

Given that no current state or federal law requires paid or unpaid bereavement leave, your organization has the opportunity to establish a customized policy that fits your culture, demographics, and budget. Keep in mind morale issues, which affect productivity, and consistent application to avoid legal challenges.

Diana Gregory, SPHR, is a senior human resources specialist at the Walnut Creek office of Administaff, a professional employer organization and human resources outsourcing firm.