BEREAVED parents should be given the legal right to compassionate leave when a child dies, an MP has said.
Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South, is proposing a bill to amend employment rights to ensure all parents get enough time off work while grieving.
Mr Harris was moved by the case of a man made to return to work five days after his son's death, just before the boy's second birthday.
Mr Harris was surprised to learn there was no legal right for time off to grieve, only guidance under the 1996 Employment Rights Act.
He said: "In the immediate aftermath of a child's passing, bereaved parents must cope not only with their own grief, but that of their family. Siblings must be comforted, family and friends informed.
"To add to the burden, a great deal of administrative work and other arrangements must be undertaken.
"A funeral needs to be organised; schools and benefit offices must be notified.
"However, there is no set limit on how many days can be taken, only a vague definition of 'a reasonable amount of time'."
Mr Harris said the length of the minimum period would be considered in a consultation period if his bid were successful.
He is backing campaign group Jack's Rainbow, a charity set up by bereaved mother Lucy Herd, whose husband had to return to work after five days. The group has tens of thousands of signatures calling for statutory bereavement leave.
Mr Harris said: "The government has stated that it would be difficult to outline the limits of statutory bereavement leave, because 'limits, standards and definitions' would need to be put in place. The government has also argued that it would be difficult to define 'what family relationship would qualify for such leave', and that it would be 'impossible to legislate for every circumstance'.
"I find this argument disingenuous. Surely the government should start from the moral case that parents should be afforded time off if their child passes away, not find obscure excuses not to act."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article