Paid leave for child death...?

[Barman]

I was just listening on the wireless to a bit about a campaign to grant 4 weeks paid leave to anybody that loses a child...

Surely compassionate leave arrangements between an employer and employee are not something to be enshrined in the law?

Where do you draw the line on this?

4 weeks off when one of your parents dies? Siblings? Aunties, uncles, close cousins? The pet dog, cat or hedgehog?

Employers simply can't afford to pay people not to be there - it is bad enough with bloody maternity leave for a year without adding to the burden...

And surely yet another reason not to employ females?

Or am I being hard hearted? 

[Nick]

I got 4 weeks off

[Barman]

I got 4 weeks off

So, the existing arrangements work perfectly well...?

I'd imagine there are plenty of employers that would give a grieving parent as much time off as they need...

...there must be many others that simply cannot afford to do so and still fulfill their obligations for holiday pay, etc. Flexibility should be the order of the day.

When my father died I stayed away from work by using up my holiday allowance.

[Miss Demeanour]

I was just listening on the wireless to a bit about a campaign to grant 4 weeks paid leave to anybody that loses a child...

Surely compassionate leave arrangements between an employer and employee are not something to be enshrined in the law?

Where do you draw the line on this?

4 weeks off when one of your parents dies? Siblings? Aunties, uncles, close cousins? The pet dog, cat or hedgehog?

Employers simply can't afford to pay people not to be there - it is bad enough with bloody maternity leave for a year without adding to the burden...

And surely yet another reason not to employ females?

Or am I being hard hearted? 

 

As for' death leave' seems another way of 'offering' a benefit that will be needed by a only a few (and bloody hell if they are worrying about leave arrangements after you have just lost a child then the world truly is a mad, sad place !!!
Another side of a caring , sharing hypocritical government. 

Special leave policies normally would cover such times but are open to the discretion of a manager and this is where difficulties arise. Yes you can use all your leave too but grief is not something that can be prescribed. Often people will want to come back to work and be functioning but may need time later on.

[Nick]

I was just listening on the wireless to a bit about a campaign to grant 4 weeks paid leave to anybody that loses a child...

Surely compassionate leave arrangements between an employer and employee are not something to be enshrined in the law?

Where do you draw the line on this?

4 weeks off when one of your parents dies? Siblings? Aunties, uncles, close cousins? The pet dog, cat or hedgehog?

Employers simply can't afford to pay people not to be there - it is bad enough with bloody maternity leave for a year without adding to the burden...

And surely yet another reason not to employ females?

Or am I being hard hearted? 

 

As for' death leave' seems another way of 'offering' a benefit that will be needed by a only a few (and bloody hell if they are worrying about leave arrangements after you have just lost a child then the world truly is a mad, sad place !!!
Another side of a caring , sharing hypocritical government. 

Special leave policies normally would cover such times but are open to the discretion of a manager and this is where difficulties arise. Yes you can use all your leave too but grief is not something that can be prescribed. Often people will want to come back to work and be functioning but may need time later on.

[serious] it took me about two years [serious]

[Barman]

I was just listening on the wireless to a bit about a campaign to grant 4 weeks paid leave to anybody that loses a child...

Surely compassionate leave arrangements between an employer and employee are not something to be enshrined in the law?

Where do you draw the line on this?

4 weeks off when one of your parents dies? Siblings? Aunties, uncles, close cousins? The pet dog, cat or hedgehog?

Employers simply can't afford to pay people not to be there - it is bad enough with bloody maternity leave for a year without adding to the burden...

And surely yet another reason not to employ females?

Or am I being hard hearted? 

 

As for' death leave' seems another way of 'offering' a benefit that will be needed by a only a few (and bloody hell if they are worrying about leave arrangements after you have just lost a child then the world truly is a mad, sad place !!!
Another side of a caring , sharing hypocritical government. 

Special leave policies normally would cover such times but are open to the discretion of a manager and this is where difficulties arise. Yes you can use all your leave too but grief is not something that can be prescribed. Often people will want to come back to work and be functioning but may need time later on.

Exactly...

The campaign was started by a woman that lost a young child in a freak accident (and presumably felt her employer was not flexible enough)....

If this comes in it will spread in exactly the same way that Maternity leave has spawned paternity leave... 

And I was being serious about females - as a small employer ( I employed 45) you have to think very seriously about taking on somebody that might expect to take a year off at some point while you hold their job open for them (and try to cover it with temporary staff)... 

Of course, you are not allowed to ask if they are thinking of starting a family or anything like that...