About leave for a funeral

[shellistar]

I'm quite emotional and don't want to go all guns blazing because of this.

A close relative (but not direct iyswim) who is also my godmother died recently and the funeral is this week. I've emailed my boss about taking leave but because I've never had to take leave for this type of thing before I asked what the process would be.

My boss has come back saying that I'll need to take a days annual leave for it.

This wouldn't be so bad in itself but I get very few days leave because we have to save 2 weeks for Christmas. I wouldn't mind so much but, as mentioned before, I've never taken leave for a funeral in the seven years+ that I've worked with this manager.

Another irritating factor is the fact that work a minimum of 10 unpaid hours extra a week (so 50 instead of my contracted 40), not including all the weekend work that I do as well.

Manager has said that he will discuss with me today but I'd really like to know whether I'd just be a whinger to point out the OT that I do? My manager can be quite difficult and because I'm upset I don't want it to cloud my judgement.

Thoughts?

Do you keep a log of the OT you do?

We have a TOIL spreadsheet at work which shows all of the overtime worked and any TOIL taken. We're never allowed to accrue more than 40 hours overtime.

Is it written into your contract that you're expected to do unpaid overtime? if not, I would stop doing it.

Thanks again everyone.

Cleanmyhouse I think I'll start logging it. I work in an industry where unpaid OT is expected but I do believe that there should be give and take. It would be worth knowing my OT hours in case I found myself in a situation where using them would be advantageous.

My dh and I work in the public sector when my dm died his boss wouldn't let him have compassionate leave for the funeral. He used the line that relatives by marriage aren't immediate family

It seems very harsh. Where I work you officially get compassionate leave for the death of a spouse, child, parent, or sibling. There's no official rule on funerals but most managers would be flexible in a situation like yours and let you just have the day. But there will always be some 'by the book' people who will make you take annual leave.

I always think if someone wants time off to go to a funeral it should be given as paid compassionate leave. Funerals are not fun jolly ways to spend your annual leave/rest and recuperation time so I think employers should be compassionate in allowing time off paid. Employers reap what they sow and if they're good to their staff, their staff will continue to work 10+ hours unpaid overtime a week. Otherwise the staff will either quit or cut down on unpaid overtime.

Show how much OT you have done and ask to take the funeral as time in lieu. It should be compassionate leave but some companies have tight policies like only direct relatives, I found this out when someone close to me (not related) died.

Agree paid leave is normally reserved for immediate family funerals.

Our organisation will allow compassionate leave only for immediate family - and then will only permit a 50/50 split. So if you need a week off, you can have 50% as CL and you must take the remainder as AL.

Sadly, this rule was brought in as some people were allegedly abusing the CL situation. All that it achieved was to alienate the genuine cases as the system abusers just started ringing in sick...

I'm quite shocked at some of the policies on here, tbh.

I work for a large supermarket chain. We get two weeks fully paid leave for parents, children, live-in partners/spouses. We also get a week fully paid for siblings, grandparents, step-family and anyone we share an address with (so flatmates/roommates, etc.).

We also don't have to take the leave in a solid block. So, for example, if someone dies on say, a Wednesday, but their funeral is ten days later, you can take four working days leave, go back to work, and take another week or few days off for the funeral. They're very sympathetic and if you're working and find out someone has passed, regardless of whether it's a pet, friend or relative, they send you home immediately and give you the following day off work (unpaid or as AL, whichever you choose).

It is normal for employers to make employees use annual leave for funerals, but when you are forced into taking two weeks off because they close, they should be more flexible.