Q: We have a staff member who has taken 2 days off to go to a funeral for her uncle (the funeral is a 4-hour drive away, so the employee would be staying overnight). Is the time off classed as personal leave? If so, she is owing us time for personal leave as of now. How do we manage this?

A: For the purposes of personal and compassionate leave, the definition of an employee’s ‘immediate family’ does not include an employee’s uncle. The employee may take these days as annual leave or you may like to allow the employee to take unpaid leave.

Please note: The answer is correct at the time of publishing. Be aware that laws may change over time. Refer to Compassionate leave for current advice.