Hiring glossary
What is bereavement leave?
Bereavement leave, also called compassionate leave, is time off work after the death of a family member or someone close, to grieve, make arrangements and attend the funeral, sometimes paid and sometimes unpaid depending on the law and the employer’s policy.
In the UK, employees have a right to a reasonable amount of time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant, which the employer does not have to pay for. Parents whose child dies before the age of 18, or who have a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, may be entitled to Parental Bereavement Leave and statutory pay. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is due to create a wider, unpaid right to statutory bereavement leave, including for pregnancy loss, from April 2027. Many UK employers already offer paid compassionate leave through their own policy.
In Australia, the Fair Work Act entitles employees to two days of compassionate leave for each occasion when a member of their immediate family or household dies or has a life-threatening illness or injury, when a child in the family is stillborn, or when the employee or their partner has a miscarriage. It is paid for permanent employees and unpaid for casuals. In Canada, federally regulated employees can take up to ten days of bereavement leave after the death of an immediate family member, and once they have three consecutive months of service the first three days are paid.
The US has no federal bereavement leave requirement, so most entitlement comes from employer policy, with some states legislating. In California, for example, employers with five or more employees must allow an eligible employee (employed for at least 30 days) up to five days of bereavement leave after the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner or parent-in-law. In India, bereavement leave is usually set by company policy.
A good policy names which relationships it covers (and allows discretion beyond them), the number of paid days, extra time for travel or for close relatives, how to request it at short notice, and what evidence, if any, is needed. Managers should know they can approve it the same day. This is general information, not legal advice.
Also called: compassionate leave, funeral leave, bereavement leave policy.
Example
An employee’s father dies on a Sunday night. She messages her manager, who approves five days of paid bereavement leave under the company policy that morning, arranges cover for her client calls and tells her she can add annual leave if she needs to travel abroad for the funeral.
Related terms
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