Compassionate Leave

Introduce Paid Compassionate Leave for all Workers

Bereavement leave is currently on available to parents following the death of a child. The intention is to make Compassionate Leave available to all workers.

Proposed Changes

Since April 2024 legislation has entitled parents of children under 18 that dies to take 2 weeks of paid bereavement leave. Labour intends to extend this right to apply to all workers.

Their intention is that the minimum entitlement will be to two weeks of compassionate leave and pay; hopefully there will be some guidelines as to relationships i.e. parents and step-parents, grandparents, siblings and step-siblings, children and step-children, aunties and uncles etc.

Timescales

This legislation would need to progress through Parliament to receive Royal Assent before been implemented into legislation. It is likely to be 2025 before this becomes law.

Top Tips

This could have significant impact on employers who limit compassionate leave to unpaid leave. Many of my clients offer one or two days to deal with the initial shock and the funeral and up to five days if the employee is arranging the funeral. But for most of those the official message is leave is unpaid and then they apply discretion depending on the length of service of the employee and the relationship with the deceased. A jump to two weeks per situation is a big jump, especially for something which could be easily open to abuse.

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