Bereavement Leave Denied

[brucewayne123]

I am in Illinois.

My wife suffered a miscarriage and my employer denied my bereavement leave request. Our baby was 8 weeks old and had a heartbeat.

They indicated that bereavement leave can only be granted (in the case of a miscarriage) if a death certificate is provided.

Would like advice/thoughts on this. I’m a bit frustrated to say the least. Does this warrant a discrimination complaint based on parent/religious status? Thank you.

 

[Ohiogal]

I am in Illinois.

My wife suffered a miscarriage and my employer denied my bereavement leave request. Our baby was 8 weeks old and had a heartbeat.

They indicated that bereavement leave can only be granted (in the case of a miscarriage) if a death certificate is provided.

Would like advice/thoughts on this. I’m a bit frustrated to say the least. Does this warrant a discrimination complaint based on parent/religious status? Thank you.

No.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Would like advice/thoughts on this. I’m a bit frustrated to say the least. Does this warrant a discrimination complaint based on parent/religious status? Thank you.

My deepest sympathies on the loss of your child. Unfortunately no federal or Illinois state law requires that an employer provide any bereavement leave. If the employer has a specific program for bereavement leave then it may be that the employer must apply the provisions of its program consistently for every employee. But the employer gets to define what the requirements for the leave are so long as it does not violate federal and state laws on illegal discrimination by employers.

Under federal law an employer may not discriminate against an employee because of the employee's race, color, national origin, citizenship, religion, sex (which includes specific provisions for pregnancy), age (if the employee is at least age 40), disability, or genetic test information. Illinois law prohibits an employer from discrimination against an employee because of the employee's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, marital status, physical or mental disability, military status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, or unfavorable discharge from military service.

So neither federal nor Illinois law expressly protects you from discrimination because of the status of being a parent. As for pregnancy discrimination, both the federal government and the state define the protection for that to mean that a pregnant employee must be treated the same "as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work." So, for example, if Jane is unable to work a particular day or days because of complications from her pregnancy she cannot be treated differently than an employee who is unable to work for a particular day or days for some other medical reason. Here, you are asking about leave from YOUR employer for bereavement, and as you were not a pregnant employee the prohibition against discrimination based on pregnancy does not help you.

I'm not seeing anything here that suggests religion was a factor in the employer's decision. Of course, if the employer would have given leave to employees of one religion in this situation but not employees of another religion that would likely violate both federal and Illinois law.

Just from what you provided here, I'm not seeing anything that suggests the employer is illegally discriminating against you. While it would be kind for the employer to grant you the leave, if it has a specific policy for what qualifies for the leave and you don't meet that then the employer likely feels the need to stick to that to ensure it doesn't get complaints of inconsistent application of the policy by other employees.