Labor union CNV calls for mandatory paid bereavement leave; Minister punts on the issue

Four out of ten employers do not give grieving employees enough space to cope with their loss. More than a quarter receive no understanding at all from their employer. This was reported by the CNV trade union based on its own survey of 1,900 employees who have had to deal with bereavement in the last ten years. The CNV is therefore once again calling for two weeks of statutory bereavement leave.

Last month, the CNV had already called on the Cabinet to introduce a statutory two-week bereavement leave as soon as possible. The union was responding to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), which showed that many employees were often absent for more than a week after the loss of a loved one.

CNV chairman Piet Fortuin speaks of "shocking figures". "Many employers still don't know how to deal with grieving employees. That is harmful." According to the survey, 65 percent of all respondents were dissatisfied with the current arrangements for bereavement leave at work. 36 percent needed longer leave than they were granted by their employer, and 77 percent of respondents were in favor of two weeks of bereavement leave.

In addition, Fortuin said that employers even put pressure on grieving employees. Some are even given extra work to "help" distract them. “Disastrous for functioning, especially in the long term. It is also not smart for employers: this ultimately costs them more money due to high absenteeism and burnout. Employers who do not allow for losses often pay the price in the long term,” he stated.

According to the CNV chairman, there is a great need for legal regulation in the Netherlands. "But this leave has been difficult to achieve so far. Politicians are barely budging. This is incomprehensible, especially given the high number of burn-outs. That's why politicians need to take care of a two-week bereavement leave as soon as possible," Fortuin said.

Building blocks for statutory bereavement leave already in progress

Whether there will be a statutory bereavement leave is no longer up to this Cabinet, according to the former Minister of Social Affairs, Karien van Gennip.

Several collective labor agreements (CBAs) already provide for a bereavement leave scheme, Van Gennip (CDA) emphasized. The question of whether and, if so, how the legislator should arrange something for this will be up to the forming parties: it is not only "a decision for the collective labor agreement table, but also for the formation table ".

According to Van Gennip, the "building blocks" to make a decision on this will be ready. "I am currently looking at all the different forms of leave we have in the Netherlands." In addition to any bereavement leave, this also concerns parental leave, leave for informal care, and emergencies. The minister wants to "see whether we can better streamline these various holidays".

With bereavement leave specifically, what people need differs from person to person, Van Gennip stressed. In many cases, she said, employers deal "quite well" with a period of mourning after the death of a loved one.