The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to end violence against women and children and has accepted the recommendations of the independent review into paid family and domestic violence (FDV) leave.
The review, conducted by Flinders University, found that FDV leave is ‘life changing’ for those who accessed it, and the leave is working as intended to support the financial security of those escaping or experiencing violence.
The review made twelve findings – most notably, that there should be a focus on increasing awareness and understanding of the leave entitlement through communities and workplaces to address the low uptake of the entitlement to date.
The Government is working on addressing the recommendations, including through –
- Continued focus on raising awareness to integrate the leave as an ordinary workplace practice across Australian workplaces
- Tailored guidance for priority cohorts, such as First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse and casual employees
- Training programs for first responders, health, allied health and community frontline workers who commonly interact with victim-survivors on the entitlement
- Additional strategies to improve awareness and access to the entitlement, opportunities to better understand usage of the leave, and further evaluation of the leave through the upcoming statutory review of Closing Loopholes reforms
Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said, “Since coming to Government, we have been deeply committed to ending gender-based violence – we were proud to introduce paid domestic and family violence leave as some of our first legislation, and the independent review has demonstrated its life changing impact.”
The Government will continue to engage with state and territory governments, unions and employer groups to work on strategies to improve awareness and access to FDV leave. Employers will have access to better guidance on effectively and safely handling disclosures of FDV as part of the Government’s plan to normalise utilisation of paid FDV leave.
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Murray Watt said “No worker should have to choose between their safety and their pay. We’ve made sure all 12.4 million Australian employees, including casuals, can access 10 days paid leave each year when impacted by family and domestic violence.’
FDV leave is under threat from the opposition with LNP Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Michaelia Cash claiming that paid family and domestic violence leave is a ‘perverse disincentive’ to employers hiring women. We wait to see if Peter Dutton and the Coalition will include FDV leave as a part of their ‘targeted set of repeals’ of workplace laws they promise to take to the election.