Leave to attend a funeral of family member

irishjohn

MrsE wrote: »

One of my (public sector) colleagues recently had a day off for her fathers funeral.

I wonder how many of these people with their "stories" really do work in the public sector;)

Was there for four years - and yes occasionally they were under pressure - but boy do they milk it.

miss_duke

Irish John, I had no idea it was different here until I read this thread! However I am def not of one those mentioned re maternity, I am preg for the third time and have never been absent due to preg related illness or after maternity. However when I returned the first time I was certainly met with surprised colleagues who had assumed I wouldn't be back yet.

Some one commented on efficiencies to be made still.... of course there is, I don't know anyone who thinks otheriwse!!!! Without question theres a long way to go, and I am the first to say it - even though I may well be affected.

Anyway, sorry op for hijacking your thread!!!

staffie1

jolfc wrote: »

I work in the public sector and we get 3 days compassionate leave and a day for the funeral, anymore taken would have to be unpaid leave, holiday or sick and with a doctors note after 5 days ( may be 7 days) Also for close family members those rules apply. If it is a friend etc that the funeral is for it is taken off as unpaid leave.

That seems reasonable to me. Different rules for those working in Northern Ireland according to Miss Duke. I'm guessing there are different rules depending where in the public sector one is employed?

irishjohn

I lived in England for over 30 years - working mainly in the public sector - I know what you mean. I really felt was being frowned on for doing too much. One girl I worked with had to produce printed plastic cards with personalised info on them - she averaged just over 100 a day - I covered for her and my first day score was just over 800 - unbelievable.

irishjohn

staffie1 wrote: »

That seems reasonable to me. Different rules for those working in Northern Ireland according to Miss Duke. I'm guessing there are different rules depending where in the public sector one is employed?

The rules are probably the same but the application different - any manager can give compassionate leave - and once that has been used up - its off for a sicknote generally.

staffie1

irishjohn wrote: »

i worked for a while in the public sector in NI and I can confirm what Miss Duke is saying and worse.

In Northern Ireland funerals generally take place within 3 days of a person's demise. There is not the long period of waiting for a funeral as in GB. However the grief takes a lot longer to recover from for public sector employees and you would not want to know how long the average period of paid compassionate or sick leave for a bereaved employee is.

Maternity leave is similar - the poor lasses here in NI don't seem to be made of very strong stuff - in my 4 years in a public sector department, one senior manager had two periods of maternity leave, and two other members of staff also had maternity leave. I won't reveal how many of those periods of maternity leave were immediately followed by six months of sick notes for bad backs - with recovery occuring just before sick pay was reduced from full to half pay.

My own conclusions? An awful lot of people in this country find work such an inconvenience!!

That really is taking the p***. But of course, working the system is rife in the private sector too. According to a guy who (used to) work for me, his grandmother died 3 times over a period of 18 mths. I don't know whether he was stupid or he just thought I was.

staffie1

irishjohn wrote: »

The rules are probably the same but the application different - any manager can give compassionate leave - and once that has been used up - its off for a sicknote generally.

Yes well when redundancies come round (public or private sector) sick leave is usually taken into account, so they're doing themselves no favours.

SandC

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I can't understand why anyone would want to take two or three weeks off if a parent died; what would be the point?

Believe me where I work (private sector) the norm is between 2 and 4 weeks for a parent. I believe they just take it as sick leave. The employee handbook states fairly usual policy of up to 3 days if it's a close relative and the employee is arranging the funeral.

I had a week off when my father passed away - then I took a day off for the funeral. If you are unlucky enough to pass away on a Friday evening and there's a bank holiday looming it can be nearly 2 weeks before the funeral takes place. I couldn't feasibly have stayed at home any longer after all the arrangements were in place, and I really don't get how a couple of people at work (sisters working in different departments) both needed 4 weeks off when their mum died. I rather suspect that if this sort of leave were unpaid it might be different. I was told to take as long as I wanted.

My brother, on the other hand, asked his wife to ring work for him and because she got HR who were reading from the 'handbook' he was told he could have one day off. So he went in after one day and promptly went home again because he couldn't deal with it. He just went to his GP and she immediately wrote him a note for 2 weeks. He said that as soon as he sat down and said his dad had died she was reaching for her pad, so it is very common.

I attended the funeral of my uncle and I took a day's leave for that and never considered even asking to get a paid day for it. But I have attended local funerals, just the service where I've been out of the office for an hour or two and they are fine with that time being paid.

I know that if it was my brother then I would be given paid leave. In fact, I know that in those circumstances I would need it more as I would be far greater affected by the sudden death of my brother than I was by my mother or father's death.

SarEl

SandC wrote: »

Believe me where I work (private sector) the norm is between 2 and 4 weeks for a parent. I believe they just take it as sick leave. The employee handbook states fairly usual policy of up to 3 days if it's a close relative and the employee is arranging the funeral.

I had a week off when my father passed away - then I took a day off for the funeral. If you are unlucky enough to pass away on a Friday evening and there's a bank holiday looming it can be nearly 2 weeks before the funeral takes place. I couldn't feasibly have stayed at home any longer after all the arrangements were in place, and I really don't get how a couple of people at work (sisters working in different departments) both needed 4 weeks off when their mum died. I rather suspect that if this sort of leave were unpaid it might be different. I was told to take as long as I wanted.

My brother, on the other hand, asked his wife to ring work for him and because she got HR who were reading from the 'handbook' he was told he could have one day off. So he went in after one day and promptly went home again because he couldn't deal with it. He just went to his GP and she immediately wrote him a note for 2 weeks. He said that as soon as he sat down and said his dad had died she was reaching for her pad, so it is very common.

I attended the funeral of my uncle and I took a day's leave for that and never considered even asking to get a paid day for it. But I have attended local funerals, just the service where I've been out of the office for an hour or two and they are fine with that time being paid.

I know that if it was my brother then I would be given paid leave. In fact, I know that in those circumstances I would need it more as I would be far greater affected by the sudden death of my brother than I was by my mother or father's death.

Would this be the time to say that there are obviously a lot of efficiencies still to make in the private sector?

But isn't the point that everyone reacts differently to bereavement, and employers ought to be flexible within their business requirements to support their staff whilst obviously not allowing people to take the !!!!. But they do not have to be, and it is all too often when people have taken liberties in the past that they crack down and start enforcing rules rigidly - whatever the circumstances and whatever the sector.

Opinions are all very well and good, but as I have pointed out already, as have others, there is no legal right to paid time off for a funeral - and it is all a bit moot if the OP's brother died in June.

VfM4meplse

SarEl wrote: »

Opinions are all very well and good, but as I have pointed out already, as have others, there is no legal right to paid time off for a funeral

Decency is another matter entirely - one member of staff didn't attend her own aunt's funeral (who she claimed to be very close to) as the company policy was not to cover this time. However as line manager I was super-flexible with time, although I learnt about it after the event. It seems to me she just didn't want to go, as she took time off for plenty of other comparatively trivial reasons.