Family and domestic violence leave: What all Australian businesses need to know about the new entitlements

In March 2018, the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission determined to introduce an entitlement to five days of unpaid leave for family and domestic violence reasons for all award-covered employees.

From 1 August 2018, all modern awards were varied to insert the model term giving effect to this new entitlement.

What is the entitlement?

All modern award-covered employees, including casual employees, now have an entitlement to five days of unpaid leave to deal with family and domestic violence. The leave may be accessed in single days, in one whole period or, by agreement, for a period of less than a day. Further, an employer and employee may agree that an employee can take more than five days’ unpaid leave.

The leave entitlement is available in full and immediately every 12 months of service (that is, it does not accrue throughout the year) but employees cannot accrue the leave from year to year.

This unpaid leave may be taken by an employee if they are experiencing family and domestic violence and need to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence in circumstances where it is impractical for the employee to do so outside of their ordinary hours of work. Read more

Shane Koelmyer - SmartCompany - 6 September 2018