Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 186: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he plans to introduce legislation that will make it mandatory for employers to grant bereavement leave, as advocated by the Irish Hospice Foundation. [31377/07]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is committed to a two-pronged approach to achieving the goal of making workplaces more family friendly — the provision of statutory entitlements through legislative measures, and promoting a partnership approach at the level of the enterprise. Legislative measures which provide for statutory entitlements include maternity leave, adoptive leave, carer's leave and parental leave, along with all the other employment rights legislation. There is no general statutory entitlement to bereavement leave. Whether an employee is entitled to take time off in such circumstances depends on whether any provision exists in the employee's terms and conditions of employment providing for such leave.

Legislation is clearly important in terms of protecting workers and providing a base level of protection. However, in general, conditions of employment in excess of statutory entitlements are determined by negotiation and agreement between employers and employees or trade union acting on their behalf.

The challenge to achieving work life balance in individual enterprises is to establish policies that reflect the reality of the workplace and meet the many diverse needs of employees. It is considered that a partnership approach is the best method of addressing work life balance policies at this level in order to achieve tailor made solutions to the benefit of the workforce and the employer. Accordingly, I have no plans to introduce legislation to compel employers to grant bereavement leave to workers.