{"id":267301,"date":"2018-08-26T07:47:08","date_gmt":"2018-08-26T05:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=267301"},"modified":"2018-08-26T07:47:08","modified_gmt":"2018-08-26T05:47:08","slug":"ukzn-will-now-allow-lecturers-a-day-off-to-mourn-their-pets-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/267301\/ukzn-will-now-allow-lecturers-a-day-off-to-mourn-their-pets-report\/","title":{"rendered":"UKZN will now allow lecturers a day off to mourn their pets: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The University of KwaZuluNatal (UKZN) has introduced a new pet-bereavement policy &#8211; allowing staff a day off to mourn a departed dog, cat or any other animal which was close to them.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report by the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2018-08-25-pet-bereavement-leave-when-your-dog-has-had-its-day-you-get-the-day-off\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>, the policy &#8211; which applies to employees\u2019 registered pets &#8211; came into effect in April 2018.<\/p>\n<p>UKZN spokesperson Normah Zondo explained that for many university staff their pets were like family and this resonated with the leadership of the university.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the paper, Librarian Ashika Pramlal said that she took pet-bereavement leave when her dog died in June. She had to plan his funeral and burial according to Hindu rites and mourn his loss.<\/p>\n<p>Ishana Gangaram, an administration officer at the university, also took bereavement leave when her pet died in April.<\/p>\n<p>While pet-bereavement and &#8216;pawternity&#8217; leave (when pet owners adopt a new animal) is increasingly being offered in countries such as the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Finland &#8211; it is still a relatively new concept in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>As such, lawyer Jonathan Jones warned that the system may be open to abuse and that employers should know what they were getting themselves into.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Employees could argue attachment to other types of pets such as rabbits, rats or birds or even cold-blooded pets such as reptiles, snakes or fish,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/267141\/10-toughest-job-interview-questions-and-how-to-answer-them-successfully\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">10 of the toughest job interview questions \u2013 and how to answer them successfully<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of KwaZuluNatal (UKZN) has introduced a new pet-bereavement policy &#8211; allowing staff a day off to mourn a departed dog, cat or any other animal which was close to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":246871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-267301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267301"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267327,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267301\/revisions\/267327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}