The question of employees' rights to time off work on compassionate grounds has come to the fore in recent weeks.

Employers throughout the country have received requests for time off from those wanting to visit Asia in an attempt to trace missing relatives, from those needing to make funeral arrangements and from those wanting to take a sabbatical to go and help with the clean-up operations in the aftermath of the disaster.

The law of England and Wales gives no right to time off on compassionate grounds. Neither, as is commonly thought, is there any right to bereavement leave. A particularly hard-hearted employer may therefore insist that a bereaved employee takes holiday to attend the funeral and to grieve, although the vast majority of employers do allow their staff some specific time off following a bereavement - often a combination of paid and unpaid leave.

There is, however, a statutory obligation to allow employees to take time off to make funeral arrangements. This is set out in section 57a of the Employment Rights Act 1996, commonly referred to as "the right to time off for family emergencies". Under this section, an employee has the right to take a reasonable amount of time off in order to take action which is necessary in consequence of the death of a dependant. That would extend to making the necessary funeral arrangements and, where the death occurred abroad, to arrange repatriation. It must be remembered that the time off must be for taking "action", and that therefore an employee has no right under this section to take time off purely to grieve.

"Dependent", as may be imagined, has a strict definition - a spouse, child, parent or other person living in the same household as the employee, with the exception of tenants or lodgers.

In short, employees have limited rights when dealing with bereavement. It is down to the conscience of the employer to amplify those rights by introducing discretionary policies on bereavement and compassionate leave.

* Stephen Elliott is a solicitor in the employment team of North-East law firm Ward Hadaway. He can be contacted on 0191-204 4000 or by email at stephen.elliott@wardhadaway.com

Published: 18/01/2005