From 1 August 2018, a new clause in all Modern Awards will commence operating which will provide employees with an unpaid entitlement to Family Domestic Violence Leave.
A summary of this new entitlement is as follows:
1. The entitlement will apply to all employees, including casual employees.
2. An employee will be entitled to five (5) days’ unpaid leave to deal with family and domestic violence.
3. The leave is available in full at the start of each 12 month period of the employee’s employment, however, it will not accumulate from year to year.
4. An employee may take unpaid leave to deal with family and domestic violence if the employee is experiencing family and domestic violence, he/she needs to do something to deal with the impact of the family and domestic violence and it is impractical for the employee to do that thing outside their ordinary hours of work.
5. The employee must give their employer notice of the taking of this leave as soon as practicable (which may be a time after the leave has started), and the period, or expected period, of the leave. If requested by the employer, the employee must also provide evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that the leave is taken for family / domestic violence purposes.
6. Employers must take steps to ensure information concerning any notice an employee has given, or evidence an employee has provided under this entitlement is treated confidentially, as far as it is reasonably practicable to do so.
Under the new clause, the following terms have these meanings:
“family and domestic violence” means violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by a family member of an employee that seeks to coerce or control the employee and that causes them harm or to be fearful.
“family member” means:
(i) a spouse, de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of the employee; or
(ii) a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of a spouse or de facto partner of the employee; or
(iii) a person related to the employee according to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kinship rules.
