Dealing with Bereavement

However inconvenient to your business, it’s important to deal with issues of employee bereavement sensitively and sympathetically.

For this reason it’s often advisable for someone other than the employee’s supervisor to be the one making contact. Their focus may be on the problems of covering the bereaved employee’s absence and, however inadvertently, may exacerbate an already difficult situation. Bereavements which occur over the “Festive Season” often have a more profound impact on the individual than had they happened at another time of year.

In most cases bereavement will require nothing more than approval to attend a funeral during working hours. However, depending on the relationship with the deceased and the circumstances of the death, you may be faced with a far more complex set of circumstances. Plus, death affects different people in different ways. Two employees faced with the death of an equally close relative may react in a completely different way.

Should such a matter find itself in front of an Employment Tribunal, how might it react? Undoubtedly, it will lean sympathetically towards the bereaved employee and expect you to have done whatever you could to help them through their difficult time. The starting position for the Tribunal will be the statutory entitlement under the Employment Protection Act 1996 to unpaid time off in relation to dependants. This entitles an employee to a reasonable amount of time to deal with certain matters including a dependant’s death. “Reasonable” is undefined and determined by each individual case. However, only necessary action such as registering the death, arranging or attending the funeral is covered and the legislation itself does not confer any entitlement to pay.

Of course, many employers afford a contractual entitlement to paid leave for bereavement. Even where you have no such policy, ensure you are consistent and even-handed in any ad hoc arrangements you agree. Either way, you need to make clear how much time off you are prepared to allow, whether it is with or without pay and any other ways in which you may assist. This may vary from allowing short-notice annual leave through to providing access to bereavement counselling. If the Company or the employee’s colleagues wish to pay their respects by attending the funeral, sending flowers or donating to a charitable cause, ensure in advance that this will be well received. Make clear your expectation in terms of returning to work and arrange for an appropriate manager to meet them when they do.

In a minority of cases the impact may be so profound that the employee goes off sick.  Even if they return to work their performance may be affected and relationships with other staff and customers can suffer. Monitor the situation and discuss any concerns sensitively with the employee. Might a temporary change in their normal role assist? Would temporary flexible hours help? Are they comfortable to meet customers? Ultimately, if the situation does not improve, you may be forced to follow a formal capability procedure. Be alert to sickness issues such as stress or depression, which may be deemed a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and take employment law advice from Northgate Arinso Employer Services about continued employment and any obligation you have to make “reasonable adjustments” to assist in fulfilling their role.