Bereavement Leave Pennsylvania Eligibility & Rights
Countries across the world have realized that legalizing the rights of employees is mandatory in order to ensure job security and groundless dismissal by employers. One such law is maintained by the FMLA or the Family and Medical Leave Act. It is a federal law which was signed by President Bill Clinton on August 5, 1993.
The FMLA is a federal law that guarantees eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave each year without the threat of losing their job. FMLA also ensures that employers covered by the law maintain health benefits for employees on FMLA based leave just as they were working. One of the clauses that FMLA covers is on bereavement leave.
Bereavement Leave Pennsylvania is a leave taken by employees due to the death of an immediate family member. It is taken to mourn and make necessary arrangements following the passing away of a loved one.
FMLA is only based on employers that meat its minimum criterion. All public agencies must follow FMLA regulations while for private employees, FMLA is only applicable when they have employed a minimum of 50 workers within the 75-mile radius of the work site.
For the employee to be eligible for Bereavement Leave Pennsylvania in FMLA he must’ve been working for an FMLA bound employer and should’ve worked at least one year under the same employer with a minimum of 1250 hours of work time within the past 12 months.
The state of Pennsylvania follows all the regulations laid down by the FMLA and has a comparatively lax policy regarding the Bereavement Leave Pennsylvania. According to the state law of Pennsylvania professional employees are to be provided with paid time off in order to make arrangements, settle family affairs, bereavement and attending the funeral or memorial service of a member of the immediate family.
The Bereavement Leave Pennsylvania will be required to provide the proper documentation of the death in any legitimate form e.g. death certificate, obituary, documentation from the funeral home. The bereavement policy is only valid for family members considered applicable according to the labour agreement. This divides the family into immediate family member and a close relative.
For the death of an immediate family member employees are allowed to take up to 5 days off, immediate family members include the employee’s spouse, domestic partner, parent, stepparent, child or stepchild or the parent or the child of the employee’s domestic partner. In case of the death of a near relative, the employee will be granted up to 3 days paid leave.
Near relatives include the employee’s brother, sister, grandparent, step-grandparent, grandchild, step grandchild, in-laws, aunt, uncle or any relative residing in the employee’s household or the following relatives of the employee’s domestic partner: brother, sister, parent, grandparent and grandchild.
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The bereaved need not avail the allotted paid leave consecutively since it is understood that not all matters pertaining to a relative’s death can be resolved immediately. Hence employees are allowed to use the allotted time off within a year of the death of the family member.
