PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) – Mayor Ted Wheeler announced he would be giving City of Portland employees 40 hours of bereavement leave to grieve following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others across the nation.

According to the mayor’s office, the bereavement is to give employees time to reflect as Americans face “a collective grief and trauma coming from a culmination of oppression that is over 400 years old.”

“We hear and understand that many of our employees, especially our BiPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color) employees, are deeply impacted by these recent events and are hurting,” Wheeler said in a press release.

Wheeler said he is directing managers and supervisors in the city to approve leave without question, and added that he hopes other employers in the city do the same thing.