We have an employee who we sponsor on a skilled worker visa. The employee has put in a written request to take 3 weeks annual leave to return to Nigeria to attend to her mother's funeral and buriel arrangements. The mother died on 5 April but has asked for 3 weeks from 23 May! Whilst we are sympathetic towards our employees when bereaved, the dates requested are 7 weeks after the passing. I would appreciate feedback from fellow professionals of Nigerian descent who can confirm if this is part of their culture. No disrespect intended but genuinely interested to get feedback.
I'm not sure why this is suspicious - isn't your employee entitled to use her leave as she needs or wants to? Is the concern that she hasn't given enough notice or that is an awkward time for your organisation or something else?
is this purely a request to take part of normal annual leave entitlement or is there any particular bereavement leave involved too? If the former, as has been said, it’s not usually up to the employee to justify or verify the reasons for needing to take leave. But if it involves special bereavement leave it’s a bit more delicate- personally I wouldn’t be demanding evidence unless I strongly suspected it was not true. Bearing in mind that a visit all the way to Nigeria is involved anyway, so three weeks in one go is fairly reasonable in such circumstances.
is this purely a request to take part of normal annual leave entitlement or is there any particular bereavement leave involved too? If the former, as has been said, it’s not usually up to the employee to justify or verify the reasons for needing to take leave. But if it involves special bereavement leave it’s a bit more delicate- personally I wouldn’t be demanding evidence unless I strongly suspected it was not true. Bearing in mind that a visit all the way to Nigeria is involved anyway, so three weeks in one go is fairly reasonable in such circumstances.
