http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23963866

I agree, but it's a tough call if you're gonna make it official. The sociopath we have didn't even understand why you'd go to the funeral of a friend's father.

A lot of patients come to the surgery to ask for a medical sickness certificate (med3) because their employer won't give them compassionate leave for the loss of an immediate family member. Something like this would go some way to righting a wrong IMO.

My wife's boss wouldn't let her have time of to go to her godmother's funeral.
She went anyway.

My sis used to work in a nursery and officially you weren't allowed time off to go to your grandparent's funeral.

Seriously? I've been offshore twice when a grand parent died. With one, I was due off on the next chopper anyway. With the other I'd only been on board for four days. The company man got me a seat on the next chopper.

Mate those nurseries are run by people who regret never having the chance to meet Hitler... Speaking of uniforms, you had to wear their coat over their uniform in bad weather, nothing else would do. And that's only the minor stuff she told me about - I asked why she ever signed the contract.

There are some really bad employers.

A good friend of mine lost a child at 8 month pregnancy. His wife got time off but he wasn't entitled to anything so had to file for medical and took several months off. People in his company kept complaining and saying nasty stuff like "oh he is only the father"