federal employee bereavement leave
6th February 2009 by admin No Commentsfederal employee bereavement leave
“Bereavement Leave for Federal Employees”
When a close family member dies, you immediately feel the need to know what the bereavement leave policies your company offers and whether there are federal or state laws that serves to protect employees’ rights to bereavement leave.
While generally, most companies in the United States provide bereavement leave, others do not, since there is really no specific Federal law that covers employees’ right to bereavement leave. Bereavement leave terms are upon a company’s discretion. But the same is not true for federal employees.
Federal employees are covered by federal and state laws. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) describe the conditions and procedures one needs to partake in this Leave Act. The said act does not specifically describe federal employee bereavement leave though.
FMLA entitles full-time employees to use up to 40 hours of their sick leave each year if there is a need to attend to a family member who has serious health condition or if the employee’s own serious health condition makes him or her unable to perform the duties of his or her position. FMLA does not automatically cover bereavement following a death.
Whenever federal employee bereavement leave is involved and one seeks to invoke protection from FMLA, an employee should make sure the reason stated for applying for the said leave are covered by FMLA.
When one is applying for a federal employee bereavement leave invoking the protection of FMLA, it should be noted that the leave is needed for a reason tied to his or her own mental and physical distress, a condition brought about by the loss of a family member.
Going through the process of bereavement per se is not covered by FMLA’s description of serious health condition, but stating your need to attend to a family member who is suffering from a mental and physical stress due to a death of a loved one will be acceptable.
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