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Compassionate leave vs annual leave

Emily

Hi All, 

We do not currently offer paid compassionate leave. We offer a generous annual leave policy of 30 days plus bank holidays.

Are we allowed to force employees to use some of their annual leave for compassionate leave? Our current policy states that employees are 'expected to use their annual leave as far as possible for attending to personal affairs and special leave' (compassionate leave)

Or should we say 'Employees may choose to either use some of their annual leave allowance or take this as authorised unpaid leave'

Thanks it advance. 

Parents

  • You clearly wish to be seen as an employer of choice given the generous holiday allowance, so why then appear to be cheese-paring over compassionate leave when an employee is at their lowest emotionally?  You can limit this reasonably by adding a clause to say that compassionate leave is available up to a maximum of three days (inclusive of the day of the funeral) in the instance of the passing of an immediate family member (partner, parent, child, sibling) and further at the discretion of a director.  We have this in place, it is much appreciated by staff and has never been taken advantage of. Bereaved employees remember favourably support from their employers at these sad times, anything less can sometimes drive a wedge into the employment relationship and lead to issues or departure later.

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  • You clearly wish to be seen as an employer of choice given the generous holiday allowance, so why then appear to be cheese-paring over compassionate leave when an employee is at their lowest emotionally?  You can limit this reasonably by adding a clause to say that compassionate leave is available up to a maximum of three days (inclusive of the day of the funeral) in the instance of the passing of an immediate family member (partner, parent, child, sibling) and further at the discretion of a director.  We have this in place, it is much appreciated by staff and has never been taken advantage of. Bereaved employees remember favourably support from their employers at these sad times, anything less can sometimes drive a wedge into the employment relationship and lead to issues or departure later.

Children
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