Time off work to deal with a crisis - In the light of the new right of employees to unpaid leave to deal with emergencies involving others who rely on them, IRS has conducted a survey to assess the impact of the legislation on employers' policies and practices. Our survey also reviews arrangements covering time off for a wide range of other reasons and exanunes whether or not employers pay for various types of special leave. Based on responses from over 100 employing organisations, our research finds that: all the employers in our survey offer staff paid leave in the event of a bereavement; seven in 10 are willing to. allow paid time off in the event of faiifily sickness; in the case of a domestic crisis such as a burglary, more than three-fifths say they would permit paid leave; and just under half of them are willing to do the same for those employees with caring responsibilities.