Paid Family & Domestic leave comes into effect on 1 February 2023 (from 1 August for employers with less than 15 employees).
All employees will be entitled to ten days paid leave, whether they are full time, part time or casual. The ten days is not pro-rated for part time & casual employees and will be available upfront from 1 February 2023. The leave does not accumulate from year to year, and renews every year on the employee’s work anniversary. Employees who start on or after 1 February 2023 can access the full 10 days immediately.
Full time & part time employees will be paid at their full rate of pay, for the hours they would have worked and casual employees will be paid at their full rate of pay, for the hours they were rostered to work.
Payslips must not include any information that shows the employee has taken or been paid for family & domestic violence leave, and must not show the balance of family & domestic violence leave. If an employee takes family & domestic violence leave, it can be shown as ‘Other Leave’.
The definition of family & domestic violence allows an employee to take family & domestic violence leave if they “need to do something to deal with the impact of the family and domestic violence, and it is impractical to do it outside of work hours.” Examples of such actions include arranging for the safety of the employee or a close relative, attending court hearings, accessing police services, attending counselling and attending appointments with medical, financial or legal professionals. This has been extended to include conduct ‘of a current or former intimate partner of an employee, or a member of an employee’s household’.
An employee must let the employer know as soon as possible that they are taking family & domestic violence leave – this may 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 & domestic violence, and that it’s not practical to do this outside of work hours. The employer can only use this information to satisfy themselves of the employee’s entitlement if the employee consents, the employer is required by law to deal with this information, or its necessary to protect the life, health or safety of the employee or another person. The employer can’t use the information for other purpose, such as adverse action against the employee. The employer must take reasonable steps to keep any information about an employee’s situation confidential.
Until 1 February 2023 (or 1 August 2023 for small employers), employees remain entitled to 5 days unpaid family & domestic violence leave.
To view further detail from Fair Work Australia, click here