FUNERAL LEAVE

Employees are provided with a maximum of three days of paid bereavement leave per year. Bereavement pay is payable only for the time which the employee needs to miss work in order to attend the funeral of one of the following relatives: the employee’s spouse, father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, child, step-child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild.  Bereavement pay is calculated based on the base pay rate at the time of absence, and will not include any special forms of compensation, such as incentives, commissions, bonuses, or shift differentials.

In order to allow an employee to deal with the particular trauma of the death of the employee’s spouse or minor child, PHK CPA normally will allow the employee to take additional time off (either by granting an unpaid leave of up to two additional weeks or allowing the employee to apply up to two weeks of accrued vacation time to the absence). The employee should coordinate with the management, if the employee wishes to obtain extended leave in such instances.

Requests for funeral leave must be made as soon as the employee is aware of the need for leave, and must include appropriate information to allow PHK CPA to verify the need for the leave (including full name of the deceased, relationship to the employee, as well as name/address and phone number of the funeral home).  Fraudulent requests for funeral leave are grounds for immediate discharge.

PHK CPA also realizes that employees may wish to attend funerals of other persons (including close friends or family members beyond the immediate family) after the available bereavement pay for the year has been used. In such cases, if workloads permit, PHK CPA may allow the employee to take up to 3 days off without pay to attend the funeral or to apply vacation days to the time off (up to a maximum of 3 days). As a general rule, if the funeral is within 75 miles of the facility, no more than one day of leave may be allowed. If the funeral will take place over 75 miles from the facility, additional leave time may be granted (up to 3 days of leave).