Bereavement Leave: Sample Policies
Adjusting their Bereavement Leave policy to include the loss of a pregnancy through stillbirth and miscarriage is one easy, no-cost way employers can show their workers they take their RMH well-being seriously. Below are two publicly-available company policies — for Abbott and Dell Technologies — which meet a high-standard for bereavement leave.
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BEREAVEMENT LEAVE
After the death of a loved one, Abbott allows you to take time away at 100% pay. The loss of a dependent child (under age 26), spouse/domestic partner, or loss of pregnancy qualifies for 80 hours (or two-week part-time equivalent) of paid time. The loss of close family members such as an adult child (26 and older), parent, grandparent, sibling, grandchild, in-laws, and/or step relatives qualifies for 40 hours (or one-week part-time equivalent) of paid time.
ELIGIBILITY
Regular employees scheduled to work a regular weekly schedule of 20 hours or more are eligible for bereavement leave.
Source linked here
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Dell provides eligible team members paid time off in the event of the death of a family member. You receive up to five consecutive workdays or shifts of paid time off for immediate family, and three days/shifts for non-immediate family.
This paid time off benefit is in addition to whatever PWT and vacation you have. Eligible team members may, with management approval, extend bereavement time off by using any available vacation or PWT.
Manager approval is required.
Requests for bereavement time off, or extensions of bereavement time off, must be pre-approved by your manager, taking into consideration operating conditions and work schedules. Bereavement time must be properly noted on a non-exempt team member's timecard.
Who's eligible?
Only regular team members working 20 or more hours per week are entitled to bereavement leave.
Team members working 32 or more hours per week are eligible for up to receive up to five consecutive workdays or shifts of paid time off for immediate family, and three days/shifts for non-immediate family.
Team members working more than 20 but fewer than 32 hours per week are eligible for three consecutive workdays or shifts of bereavement leave.
Team members working fewer than twenty (20) hours per week are not eligible for bereavement leave.
Immediate vs. non-immediate family:
Immediate family - Up to five consecutive workdays
Parent
Parent-in-law
Step-parent
Sibling
Brother-in-law
Sister-in-law
Spouse
Child (includes miscarriage)
Stepchild
Foster child
Eligible domestic partner (including the child, parent, grandparent, sibling of the domestic partner)
Grandparent
Grandparent-in-law
Grandchildren
Non-immediate family - Up to three consecutive workdays:
Ex-spouse
Aunt
Uncle
Niece
Nephew
Foster parent
Source linked here
Key to why both of these Bereavement Leave policies meet the RMH Compass “Better” standard is that they explicitly cover pregnancy loss, include miscarriage, and they both provide three or more days of paid leave:
From Abbott’s Bereavement Leave policy: “The loss of a dependent child (under age 26), spouse/domestic partner, or loss of pregnancy qualifies for 80 hours (or two-week part-time equivalent) of paid time.“
From Dell Technologies’s Bereavement Leave policy: “You receive up to five consecutive workdays or shifts of paid time off for immediate family, and three days/shifts for non-immediate family[…] Immediate family: Child (includes miscarriage)“
Both policies are included here as they represent two separate levels of transparency and formats of description publicly available to employees — current and prospective — about Bereavement Leave Benefits:
Abbott’s Bereavement Leave policy is formatted as a summary paragraph, the most common way employers publicly communicate these benefits. Regardless, the summary describes: 1) how much paid bereavement time is available; 2) the rate at which employees are paid while on bereavement leave (100%); and 3) which employees are eligible under which circumstances.
Dell Technologies’s Bereavement Leave policy is more comprehensive than Abbott’s, but this policy format is less common in publicly available resources. Dell’s policy 1) lists out more family members covered by bereavement leave and the corresponding time off available; 2) describes which employees are eligible with additional specificity; and 3) briefly describes the manager approval process employees must undergo to access this benefit.
