Petition for Bereavement Leave Extension

As a hospice social worker and a grief educator, I've always found it woefully inadequate to provide only 3 days of paid bereavement leave in this country. It is simply unrealistic for our society to expect people to go back to work 3 days after their spouse, parent, child, or sibling dies. It also disproportionately affects those with less financial means as stated below. Please sign the petition. Heart Advice, LLC will only process the information you provide for the purposes of adding your name to the petition. Your details will not be shared with any other organizations other than the target of the petition.

Dear Members of the United States Congress,

We, the undersigned, petition the United States Congress to extend standard paid bereavement leave in the United States from 3 business days to 10 business days. We find it woefully inadequate to provide only 3 days of bereavement leave when our spouse, parent, child, or sibling dies.

In many cases, it takes 3 days just to travel if the deceased loved one lived out of town, let alone to plan for and attend the service, as well as to gather, grieve, and support each other as a community of family and friends.

Time together with family and friends is critical for sustaining ongoing mental and physical health of the grieved. The detrimental effects of isolation in the time of grief has become more and more evident during the time of pandemic. By not allowing our workforce to spend adequate time with our family and friends at the time of acute grief, our society is risking the long-term health and productivity of its citizens.

Furthermore, the 3-day paid bereavement disproportionately affect those with less financial means. Those who are more affluent can afford to take unpaid bereavement leave while those with little financial means cannot.

Therefore, we call on you to extend the standard paid bereavement leave in the United States to 10 business days, so those working full time can have 2 weeks off, if they wish, to process their acute grief without financial constraints, thus ensuring better health, safety, and productivity of its citizens.