Paid Family & Domestic Violence Leave

9th December 2022

Employers with 15 or more employees (head count) need to prepare for the introduction of Paid Family & Domestic Violence Leave on 1 February 2023. This will be introduced for smaller businesses (fewer than 15 employees) on 1 August 2023.

  • As part of the National Employment Standards it applies to all employees and the leave is not accrued, but will apply from day one.
  • Our colleagues from DSPANZ, representing digital service providers including the major accounting software companies (Quickbooks, Xero, MYOB, etc) have suggested using a manual process initially, because there has not been time to implement changes to accounting services between the legislation passing and the change taking effect in February.
  • Full-time, part-time and casual employees will be able to access 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave in a 12-month period. It won’t be pro-rated for part-time or casual employees.
  • The full 10-day leave entitlement will be available upfront. It won’t accumulate from year to year if it’s not used.
  • Employees (including part-time and casual employees) can take paid family and domestic violence leave if they need to do something to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence and it’s not practical for them to do so during their work hours.This could include, for example, the employee:
    • making arrangements for their safety, or the safety of a close relative (including relocation)
    • attending court hearings
    • accessing police services
    • attending counselling
    • attending appointments with medical, financial or legal professionals.

For more information see the Fair Work Ombudsman’s advice, including examples (casual employees, new employees, and so on).

Update: discretion around pay slips

On 8 December, updates to the Fair Work Regulations were approved at the Federal Executive Council and were registered and published.

These changes relate to paragraph 536(2)(c) of the Act, and paid family and domestic violence leave that must not be included in a pay slip:

  1. information that an amount paid to an employee is a payment in respect of the employee’s entitlement to paid family and domestic violence leave
  2. information that a period of leave taken by the employee has been taken as a period of paid family and domestic violence leave
  3. the balance of an employee’s entitlement to paid family and domestic violence leave.

In addition, further regulations can be made that require paid family and domestic violence leave to be reported as, for example, ordinary time worked, overtime or allowances, or training, rather than as a type of leave such as ‘miscellaneous’ or ‘other’ leave.

Visit the Federal Register of Legislation for the full amendment.