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Bereavement leave policy

Sample bereavement leave policy

1. Definition of bereavement leave

Bereavement leave (also called as compassionate leave) is leave to assist employees when there is a death in an employee’s immediate family or household.

Members of the immediate family are defined as the employee’s spouse, and a child, adopted child, ex-foster child, parent, grandparent ex-nuptial child, stepchild, grandchild or sibling of the employee or employee’s spouse.

2. General bereavement leave policy

Compassionate leave is paid leave taken by an employee for the purposes of spending time with a family member/member of employee’s household, who has a personal illness, or injury, that poses a serious threat to his/her life, or after the death of a family member/member of the employee’s household.

Each employee is entitled to a period of two days paid compassionate leave for each occasion where a family member has died or the employee needs to spend time with a seriously ill family member

Each application for compassionate leave will be assessed individually by management.

3. Additional policy

An employee take additional unpaid bereavement leave only with the agreement of the employer.

An employee could also take unpaid leave on the death of a person who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or household – but only with the employer’s agreement.

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