Compassionate leave....

GuruJockStrap

GuruJockStrap

GuruJockStrap

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My father passed away on the 9th December, 2007. Funeral was on the 17th December. I returned to work around the 7th January, 2008.

Company policy states that I can have 5 days paid compassionate leave. Anything beyond that is at the discretion of management. I received full pay for the time I had off.

Our holidays go from April to April. Due to the company I work for going into administration, I was unable to take any holiday, so I've still got 4 weeks left to take.

I went to my manager today to enquire about possibly having a week off. He basically turned around and said that the time I had off over Christmas due to my dads death over the 5 days compassionate leave has come out of my holiday entitlement.

I've been working there for 8 years. I've been loyal, a great asset and stuck by during the difficult times. I was never told my holiday entitlement would be used that way. I'm a bit annoyed.

Should I be?
 
Did you speak to the management when you knew you were going to take more than 5 days? If so, you could tell them that you spoke to them and they were perfectly fine with it. Therefore, you are still entitled to holiday pay.

If not, they could just say "Well we assumed you knew" - It's sad if they are like that though especially if you are been a good asset to the company for 8 years :(
 
Sorry to hear about your dad. :(

I would be a bit annoyed too. I'd say check your contract, it may say something about it? Or you could speak to your boss and say you were never told?

I've never been in the situation so don't know much.
 
You are right to be annoyed, but unfortunately the manager's discretion seems to have come into play here.

In any event you should still have over a weeks holiday allowance left: 20 days holiday, plus 5 days compassionate leave, minus the number of working days between 10th Dec - 6th Jan (at most 17 by my count assuming you work Mon-Fri). So with at least 8 days holiday remaining taking a week off shouldn't be a problem.
 
yes you should be. go get it checked out because im sure unless you agreed to it, it should not be from your holiday time.
 
I'm utterly fuming really.

When it all happened they said I could take as much time off as I like and come back when I'm ready.

I'm just annoyed they're seeing the time off I had as holiday. Quite frankly, it was one of the worst times of my life.
 
Work for a small company and basically had a conversation with the boss, so there's no other managers to speak to.

At the time of my dad's death, the general manager at the time was very understanding. Unfortunately, she left over a month ago.
 
GuruJockStrap said:
I'm just annoyed they're seeing the time off I had as holiday. Quite frankly, it was one of the worst times of my life.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean (having also lost a parent) that from your perspective it feels like you have lost out or 'wasted' leave (since it wasn't something you would have chosen to do) but from a company's POV 'holiday' basically just means any time taken off work which doesn't fall under officially signed off medical/compassionate/jury duty etc.

If you were explicitly told by your line manager at the time that you could take extra time off, and this is following company policy, then I think you have a fair argument.
 
It's easy to say with hindsight but you should have sorted out the situation on your return to work...and you could have (quite legitimately imo) self certified a week of sickness on grounds of stress so that it doesn't all come out of holiday entitlement

With good staff I have previously split leave, over and above bereavement leave, 50/50 holiday/paid leave. With not so good staff I have made them take it all as holiday and agreed that they can take unpaid leave should they need to. I had one employee who took 6 weeks off (the time kept extending from 3 weeks) to visit their sick mother who lived in Africa and agreed, given the extended nature of the absence 50/50 paid leave/unpaid leave - she was a good employee but I felt 6 weeks was too much for the company to absorb

I reckon you fall into the first category - maybe you can negotiate with your boss and point out you were incapable of functioning during that period anyway so it's not like the company lost any production they wouldn't have lost anyway
 
i know i had 2 weeks leave with full pay when my dad died. my company were very good about it and it didnt affect my holiday. if i wanted to i was able to take unpaid holiday as an extension of this leave.

sounds like your company is taking the michael a bit but you need to find out what the Ts&Cs are really before taking a grievance over it. :(

sorry to hear about your dad. :(
 
Unfortunately my suspicion is that because the firm has gone into Administration they are penny-pinching wherever they can and thus somewhere along the line have decided to clamp down hard on this sort of thing wherever possible.
 
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