Not a set number, but there is a right to reasonable compassionate leave:
[urlhttp://www.direct.gov.uk/en/parents/moneyandworkentitlements/workandfamilies/dg_10026555[/url

thanks FA,interesting stuff - the uk system seems more flexible than the french system which has more fixed rules ie 4 days paid holiday for your wedding,1 day for the wedding of one of your children,three days for the dad of a newly born child,only2 paid days in the case of a death of a spouse etc etc

moral of the story - get married very often and hope your loved one passes away quickly and get on with the next one...

All we need to do is to slow down the spin of the earth on its axis so that it rotates exactly 365 times per orbit round the sun rather than 365-and-a-bit times.

While we're at it we can move Samoa a bit to the left, convert Europe to GMT, pause the rotation until I find out the next day's lottery numbers, and give me back my lost Tuesday (threads passim).

You would be surprised at how many customers of ours pay by the clocking record and then don't take the GMT/BST time changes into account on night shifts every year - I have been told on many occasions that a night shift worker at the end of October who works one hour extra on his shift will simply get the hour back in March when he works one hour less - when you point out that he might not be on nights in March you usually get incomprehension.

I thought the year was 365.25 days long so if you are on a salaried rate the February 29th thing is nothing other than bringing back balance to the .75 days that you've already been paid for or that you will be paid for in the next four years i.e. it balances out.