While working conditions in medieval England were brutal for peasants, in some places the workers got better sick, annual and bereavement leave than plenty of workers get today. In the U.K. today, workers are entitled to 28 days of annual leave and have no statutory rights for bereavement leave. However, a new paper found that peasants on the estate of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire were entitled to a year and a day of leave if sick, and widows were granted leave upon the death of their husbands. Generally, tenants were entitled to a fortnight or a month of sick leave. If that is somehow pretty competitive with modern-day standards, perhaps that’s more of a reflection of the modern-day standard than, you know, the generosity of feudalism.
Alex Brown and Grace Owen, The Conversation
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