8 February 2023
The Fair Work Commission recently made amendments to employee entitlements regarding Family and Domestic Violence Leave.
About Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave:
As of 1 February 2023, employees engaged by a non-small business employer (employer with more than 15 employees) are entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave over a 12-month period. Moving forward the entitlement to 10 days of paid leave would then reset on the day of the anniversary of when an employee’s employment started.
For example, a national system employee other than a small business employee who started employment with their employer on 11 October 2022 would gain ten days of paid family and domestic violence leave on 1 February 2023, and that entitlement would thereafter reset on 11 October each year of their employment with that employer.
There is no minimum employment period required for an employee to become entitled to the leave.
All employees, whether full-time, part-time or casual are entitled to paid family and domestic violence leave at their full rate of pay for the hours they would have worked had they not taken the leave.
Those employed by small business employers (employers with less than 15 employees) will have access to paid family and domestic violence leave from the 1st of August 2023. Until this date employees remain entitled to take unpaid family and domestic violence leave under the existing legislation.
Other important things to know:
There is no minimum employment period required for an employee to become entitled to the leave, therefore, employees will be allowed to utilise their 10 days of paid leave immediately upon employment at a new workplace. The 10 days of paid leave does not accumulate from year to year. Employees are able to take this leave as required in accordance with the definition of family and domestic violence under Fair Work Ombudsman Australia, which was also extended to include the conduct of a current or former intimate partner or a member of an employee’s household. This leave does not have to be taken all at once, employees are able to take an individual day or several days as required.
Payslip Requirements:
As of 4 February 2023, new regulations came into effect regarding how information about paid family and domestic violence leave must be reported on pay slips. These regulations aim to reduce the risk to an employee’s safety when accessing such leave.
The regulation states that an amount paid to an employee for taking paid family and domestic violence leave has to be recorded on a payslip as either ordinary hours of work OR another kind of payment for performing work, such as an allowance, bonus or overtime payment. However, an employee can request to have their employer record the time taken as paid family and domestic violence leave as another type of leave (e.g., annual leave) on their pay slip.
If an employee has taken a period of paid family and domestic violence leave, it is best practice for their employer to record this on their pay slip in a way that makes the pay slip look as close as possible to how it would have looked if the employee had not taken the leave.
For more information regarding the new paid family and domestic violence leave, please contact Gabrielle via the link below, or visit www.fairwork.gov.au.
