Bereavement Leave Policy

Amended: March 6, 2024 

Provided by: Department of Human Resources

Related Links and Resources

• Collective bargaining agreements
• Faculty: Faculty should refer to the handbook of their primary school affiliation for guidance.
• Postdoctoral Scholars Handbook

This policy applies to all staff, temporary staff, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, or any other members of the Tufts community who are paid directly by Tufts University’s payroll department, or who are not otherwise covered by a collective bargaining agreement.  Additional provisions may exist under faculty and postdoctoral scholar handbooks. 

You may be granted up to three (3) days of paid bereavement time required by a death in the immediate family or household or following the employee’s or spouse’s/domestic partner’s miscarriage, failed surrogacy, adoption, or fertility treatment. Immediate family is defined as spouse, domestic partner, children (including stepchildren), foster children, child-in-law, parent-in-law, parent (including stepparent), sibling (including stepbrother and stepsister), sibling-in-law, grandparent, grandchildren, and any other relation required by applicable law. 

An employee may require more than the three-day bereavement leave period. An employee may request additional time off from his or her supervisor. Those arrangements, using delayed bereavement time or additional time (paid, using vacation or personal time or unpaid) may be granted at the discretion of the supervisor with the advice of the Human Resource Business Partner. 

In situations where employees must travel out of state or out of country, or where circumstances delay services, the employee may request to take the three bereavement days at a later date or in use with other paid time off.   

You must inform your supervisor prior to commencing bereavement leave. In administering this policy, the university may require verification of death and relation to the deceased, to the extent permitted by applicable law.  

Bereavement leave is paid at your base rate of pay at the time of absence for the number of hours you otherwise would have worked that day.   

Leave provided pursuant to this policy will run concurrently with any other applicable leave of absence for covered reasons, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. 

For additional policy questions, please feel free to reach out to your HR Business Partner for clarification.