From today, 1 February 2023 (or 1 August 2023 for small business employers with less than 15 employees) the current entitlement of five days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave has been replaced with 10 days of employer-paid family and domestic violence leave.
Employers should be aware:
- There is no minimum employment period required for an employee to become entitled to this leave.
- The 10 days will be available to any eligible employee (whether full-time, part-time or casual) in full at the beginning of each 12-month period of their employment.
- The entitlement does not accumulate year to year (i.e. it resets on each anniversary of the employee’s employment).
- Employees who access this leave must be paid at their full rate of pay for the hours they would have worked had they not taken the leave (including incentive-based payments and bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime, penalty rates etc.).
- Payslips must not include certain information relating to family and domestic violence leave taken, including balances.
- The definition of family and domestic violence has been extended to include the conduct of a current or former intimate partner of an employee or a member of an employee’s household.
