New Leave to Deal with Family and Domestic Violence

From 1 August 2018, all employees covered by an industry or occupation award are now entitled to 5 days of unpaid leave to deal with family and domestic violence.

The leave may be taken if the employee is experiencing family and domestic violence, or needs to do something to deal with its impact and it is impractical to do that thing outside of their ordinary hours of work.

For this purpose, family and domestic violence means violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by a family member that seeks to coerce or control the employee, and causes them to feel harm or to be fearful.

The leave is available in full at the beginning of each 12 month anniversary of the employee’s employment, but does not accumulate from year to year.

The employer may require the employee to provide evidence that he or she is experiencing family and domestic violence, or needs to do something to deal with its impact. The examples of such evidence provided in the awards include documents issued by the Police, a court or family violence support service, or a statutory declaration.

It is important to note that employers are required to take steps to ensure information concerning any notice or evidence given by the employee is treated confidentially, as far as it is reasonably practicable to do so.

Given that the entitlement is only made available through recent amendments to industry and occupation awards, it does not apply to employees covered by an enterprise agreement, other registered agreement, or those who are award and agreement free.

For advice in relation to employment law queries, please contact Michelle Morton or Sally McCutcheon of our office.