Lack of regulation leads to varying bereavement leave policies

CEDAR RAPIDS - If current legislation is successful, bereavement leave - time off work for the death of a loved one - could be regulated by the federal government for the first time.

Identical bills introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate last month would amend the Family and Medical Leave Act to include a parental bereavement policy.

The Parental Bereavement Act of 2015 would allow employees who meet specific requirements to take 12 workweeks of leave within 12 months of the death of a son or daughter.

Any type of bereavement leave is not currently regulated by any Iowa or federal law. Oregon was the first state to require any sort of bereavement leave - up to two weeks off for the death of a family member - from private employers ­beginning in January 2014.

If the proposed parental bereavement bill does become law nationwide, it would not regulate leave for the death of any loved one who is not a child and generally only apply to public agencies and private companies with 50 or more employees.

This lack of regulation often has lead employers and unions to develop their own bereavement policies, often with much variation in number of days off from company to company. Many of these policies allow for employers to handle the time off allowed on a case-by-case basis depending on factors such as the relationship of the loved one who died or distance an employee must travel for a funeral.

'I could see why employers would want some flexibility and the employee benefits with that kind of flexibility,” said Amy Reasner, a lawyer who works in employment law for Lynch Dallas law firm.

However, Reasner said, her advice to employers would be to act consistently in handing out bereavement leave time in similar cases.

Flex leave

Many of these variations in time and pay or the ability to grant time on a case-by-case basis are built into the policies of various employers in the area.

Rockwell Collins, the largest employer in Cedar Rapids, offers its full-time employees up to three paid work days for bereavement leave for the death of certain family members such as parents, children and siblings. Offering paid bereavement leave is common for employers, as the Society for Human Resource Management found that 90 percent of humand-resouces professionals said their companies offered some paid bereavement leave.

Rockwell Collins's spokesman Dave Gosh said provisions can be made for additional time off for employees under extenuating circumstances.

Alliant Energy, which employs almost a thousand people in the area, according to the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, offers between one and five days, depending on the employee's relationship to the deceased. The company added supervisors can allow for additional, non-paid time off, an Alliant official explained.

The city of Cedar Rapids includes its bereavement leave for employees in its 'flex leave” accounts. This includes paid time off for sickness, vacation, funeral leave and personal days, so employees can choose how to use that time.

As with other employers, the city allows for additional nonpaid time off on a case-by-case basis.

Both Alliant and the city of Cedar Rapids policies are for regular full-time employees and often differ slightly for members of unions or other collective-bargaining agreements.

Reasner said many companies are now electing to offer bereavement leave over funeral leave because it's less specific and employees have more freedom to choose what to do with that time. She also said the variations in time-off policies that include 'case-by-case basis” are not illegal and only run into trouble when bereavement leave days or other benefits are decided based on a 'protected-class status” such as ethnicity or sexual orientation rather than situation itself.