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Millions of Australian workers now have access to paid family and domestic violence leave, in a move that will ‘save lives’.

Full-time, part-time and casual employees can now access 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave in a 12 month period. It replaces the previous five days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave.

“No woman should ever have to choose between her job and her safety,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

“No woman should ever have to pick between her financial security and the physical and emotional wellbeing of herself or of her children.”

How does Paid Family And Domestic Violence Leave work?

The leave will be available to any employee who is experiencing violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour from a close relative, a current or former intimate partner or a member of their household that is trying to coerce or control them or cause them fear or harm.

A close relative is an employee’s spouse or former spouse, de facto partner or former de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling.

It also includes:

  • a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of an employee’s current or former spouse or de fact partner, or
  • a person related to the employee according to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kinship rules.

The full 10 day entitlement will be available upfront, you won’t need to accumulate it from year to year if it hasn’t been used.

The leave is available now for employees of businesses with 15 or more employees. From August it’ll be available for employees working for a business that employs less than 15 employees.

You are able to take this leave if you need to do something to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence, for example:

  • 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.

“The measure will allow victims of family violence to take time off work without losing income and without losing their jobs,” said Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said.

“Workers should never have to choose between their safety and wages. Paid family and domestic violence leave is a workplace entitlement that will save lives.”

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  • A great idea

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  • Great incentive for those who might need it. Its the little things that matter

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  • This is a great win for the workers. However, I must say, I am so pleased I am no longer in the employing business. All these payments make it impossible to hire people on a permanent basis.

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  • This is fantastic!! 10 days is a great start in the right direction.

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  • Brilliant! We need to be doing more to support people during vulnerable times!

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  • Hopefully once an employer becomes aware that such leave is needed, they’ll offer more informal supports too.

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  • I think this is a great step in the right direction. More needs to be done to protect people in this situation.

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  • Great move ! At the moment I pay my support worker who is on leave since the end of December after my foster daughter committed some serious actions against her

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  • Any incentive that supports people in need is good.

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  • This is a great step in the right direction. Unfortunately the actual availability to access DV services are very limited and hard to get to the right place and point. This will help many, not just women either.

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  • This was a long time coming it should also be met with mental health support and financial aid where needed for the victims!

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  • I heard about this and it’s a fantastic idea!

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  • This is great news and its about time as they need all the help they can receive

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  • A great initiative. Glad to see it is for everyone, men too.

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  • I’m a sole trader who works as a contractor to another business so no work, no pay. However, I do think this is a great initiative.

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  • This is truly wonderful, I wish this had been a thing years ago after growing up in DV there was absolutely no support back then and we endured 16 years of brutal DV

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  • This is great!! I never knew you could have unpaid leave for this reason. I left a dv situation and also had a horrible boss at the time so my stress levels were through the roof in and outside of work. Having even just a week to sort myself out and breathe and focus on where I was going to live etc and get away from everything being paid. My god it would have helped so much. I’m glad people have this on offer now.

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  • My friend received this last year as a nurse and we as amazing for her to have the extra days to plan and make sure her daughter was okay

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  • The company I work for has offered this for a while but it is so good to see this as their are so many people in these horrible situations and need time to sort things out

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  • Wow, what a brilliant subsidy. This government is really looking out for vulnerable people.

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