Bereavement can have a significant impact on a person’s mental health and wellbeing and organisations risk adding work-related stress to what is already a difficult situation if they do not make it clear to employees the bereavement policies that are in place and the support services available to them.Ĭlaire McCartney, Senior Resourcing and Inclusion Adviser at the CIPD, comments: Research from the CIPD found that just over half (54%) of employees said that they were aware of their employer having a policy or support in place for employees experiencing bereavement, while many were not. Lucy Herd is the founder of Jack’s Rainbow who has long campaigned for changes to bereavement leave and supported the successful introduction of parental bereavement legislation named after her son Jack’s Law. The CIPD and Lucy Herd’s call has been backed by Alex James, BereavementUK Founder Emma Donaldson-Feilder, Director of Affinity Coaching Supervision and charity Cruse Bereavement Care. Aside from Jack’s Law, there is currently no legal requirement for employers to pay employees who take leave following the death of a close family member, and while employees have the right to ‘reasonable’ time off work to deal with emergencies involving dependants, the law does not state how much time can be taken. It would mean that employees who experience the loss of any close family member – including a parent, child, partner or sibling, whether by blood, adoption or through marriage/a partner – would have the right to two weeks’ leave or paid leave from work. The call follows the introduction of Jack’s Law, a legal right to paid bereavement leave for working parents who lose a child under the age of 18, in April this year.

In an open letter to the Business Secretary Alok Sharma, the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, is calling on the Government to introduce the right to bereavement leave and pay to all employees experiencing a close family bereavement.

Bereavement leave