Employees may now take up to five days’ unpaid leave to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence.
Effective 1 August 2018, the Fair Work Commission implemented in all modern awards an entitlement to five (5) days’ unpaid domestic violence leave. The entitlement extends to all employees, including casuals, who are covered by a Modern Award.
Eligible employees may now take this type of leave to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence where it is impractical for them to do so outside their ordinary hours of work. This type of leave may include: taking time to make arrangements for their safety, or the safety of a family member; attending court hearings; or accessing police services.
The provision of five (5) days unpaid domestic violence leave:
- Is available in full at the commencement of each 12 month period;
- Will not accumulate from year to year;
- Will be fully available to part-time and casual employees (i.e. not pro-rated);
- Does not need to be taken all at once, but can be taken as single or multiple days; and
- Will not break an employee’s period of continuous service but does not count as service when calculating other entitlements.
Currently, employees not covered by a Modern Award or registered agreement (unless it states otherwise) are not entitled to family and domestic violence leave. However, the Federal Government plans to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) to give all employees access to unpaid leave on the same terms. Employers with a combination of award and non award covered employees, may find it impractical to only apply this provision to award covered staff.
Employers should update their leave policies and procedures to incorporate the new entitlement. Subscribers to Your HRdocs can download a template Family and Domestic Violence Leave Policy.