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On the 1st August changes take effect for small business (less than 15 employees).
Family and domestic violence means: violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by certain individuals known to an employee that both: seeks to coerce or control the employee & causes them harm or fear.
5 key points:
– 10 days (not pro-rata) paid leave for all employees – full time, part time AND casual (casuals paid as per rostered time)
– Does not accrue – full 10 days available at start of employment or transition to new system
– Does not rollover – allocation renews on employment anniversary each year
– Does not get processed as family and domestic violence leave on payslip, so payslip looks ‘normal’
– Evidence has to convince a reasonable person that the employee took the leave to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence.
More details:
Employees who are experiencing family and domestic violence can take this leave to deal with the impacts of family and domestic violence where it is not practical to do so outside their work hours. This might include:
– making arrangements for their own or a family member’s safety (including relocation)
– attending court or accessing police services
– attending counselling, or appointments with medical, financial, or legal professionals.
All employees (including part-time and casual) can take 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave each year.
To access paid family and domestic violence leave, the individual could be:
– an employee’s close relative
– a member of an employee’s household, or
– a current or former intimate partner of an employee.
All employees (including part-time and casual) can take 5 days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave each year.
To access unpaid family and domestic violence leave, the individual needs to be a close relative. A close relative is:
– an employee’s: spouse or former spouse / de facto partner or former de facto partner / child / parent / grandparent / grandchild / sibling
– an employee’s current or former spouse or de facto partner’s child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling, or
– a person related to the employee according to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kinship rules.
Employees must let their employer know as soon as possible if they need to take family and domestic violence leave. Sometimes this will be after the leave has started.
An employer can ask for evidence to show that the employee needs to do something to deal with family and domestic violence and it’s not practical to do it outside their work hours. Types of evidence an employee can provide includes:
– a statutory declaration
– family violence support service documents
– documents issued by a police service, or
– documents issued by a court.
Full details can be found at Fairwork https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/family-and-domestic-violence-leave
