Compasionate Leave entitlement.

bellapinkpink

My father recently passed away and as a result the leading up to him passing away and after I took a total of 3 weeks of work. When I returned I found that I had not been paid for any of the time off. Which I appreciated but my sister in law who works for the same company was paid for the 3 days she took off. I am paid by the hour as I work 25 hours per week and she is full time salaried. I'm just quite amazed that I have work for the company for over 10 years and she has not even been there a year. I am quite amazed that we have no compassionate leave policy or we have I cannot find it. Taking the time off will also effect my holiday entitlement for the year. I want to write to HR to query if any compassionate leave is payable. I know that they will say to it's upto my line manager. My line manager is different to my sister in laws. How can I tactfully word my query to bring up the fact that there different rules depending on your line manager, query if any compassionate leave due? I don't to be a pain but after over 10 years with virtually no sick leave been taken over the time I'm really disappointed that I haven't been paid any of the time but others will be, depending on their line managers discreation.

Strider590

It stinks, I know.... I wish I knew what the exact law was, but I suspect it may come down to company policy.

Ive seen a woman receive a disciplinary for not pre-arranging time off when her son/daughter (not sure which) was killed in a car accident.

fengirl_2

There is no statutory right to compassionate leave, although some companies do allow it. I'm afriad its holiday or unpaid.

McKneff

I think its worth asking your HR dept. While i dont think for one moment you would get3 weeks pay I'm sure there will be something in place to cover at least a couple of days. I cant see it being anything to do with line managers etc. Ask HR what the company policy is.
The company i work for allows up to 3 days for office staff and shop floor workers so no difference is made.

bellapinkpink

I certainly don't expect to be paid for 3 weeks but my case is I know HR will tell me take it up with my line manager (not sure what the point of HR is in that case) but what stinks is that one line manager is happy to pay for x amount of days for non immediate family and the other is not giving anything for an immediate family! How can that be right?

Meepster

I'm not really going to be much help to you, but I do feel for you on this.

It is completely down to the company if they pay compasionate leave or not, there is no legal requirement at all. When I was a manager at Wickes, the unwritten rule was if you were hourly paid, you either took holidays or took as unpaid leave. If you were salaried, you got paid for it. One of the perks or being salaried I guess?

I had the same situation as you (taking 3 weeks off in total) but luckily I could pay myself for it... I really hope you get somewhere with HR though, best of luck.

poe.tuesday

I would also suggest that you contact your HR dept as even though it is down to your manager's discretion is does seem unfair and somewhat mean, however, before you do contact HR I would suggest that you speak to your manager to find out their reasons why

as for not expecting 3 weeks paid compassionate leave - why not - I have given that to my staff when it has been a parent that has died, it's the least I could do given the circumstances

jacklink

i am sorry to hear of the loss of your father, god bless

SandC

Again, it's usually discretionary. If you look at it from your sister in law's point of view - her manager would have made a decision based purely on her circumstances. It was actually very generous to do so when she is not a close relation to your father. Normally, you would never know what someone else in the company had been paid or not paid for, but as she is family then I think a word with your line manager about it, then HR if nothing forthcoming, can do no harm. You really have nothing to lose in pointing out the discrepancy.

I know it's not something you think about at the time of a bereavement but all the companies I have worked for have kind of expected that following the death of a close relative a lot of people would need or want more time off than the basic 5 days (that has been the policy in all of the companies I have worked for, as far as I am aware), they have been quite happy to accept a doctor's note and have the time as sick leave. In a way it is, if you are not capable of working due to grief/stress.

I know this is the last thing you need after losing your father, good luck with it.

Savvy_Sue

it would be discriminatory to treat part-timers less favourably than full-timers. If the hourly paid workers are mostly part-timers, they should still have the same conditions of employment as the salaried full-timers.

So it would be worth checking contracts: our says that normally up to 5 days paid leave can be given by the line manager (for full-timers). In practice more can be authorised by our Trustees (we're a charity).