Years ago, I watched as a person gave evidence to the Fair Work Commission about why they felt their dismissal was unfair.
The employer, a large government organisation, had dismissed the person because of too many unexplained absences. The employer pointed out that they had a business to run, which was constantly being hampered by the repeated absences of the worker in question.
But no one expected what followed. In a quiet and measured tone, the worker began detailing violent screaming sessions and abuse, frequent police visits, and being threatened with a knife before work on a Tuesday morning. The worker also spoke about anxiety attacks and other physical symptoms that accompanied these events, which over a series of months, preceded more and more time off work.
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Having this kind of leave would have made a big difference for me in the last 18 months. Being the subject of physical, verbal, emotional and financial abuse - while being in full time employment - meant that I had little time or motivation to try to 'get out' of the relationship. While I was at work, desperately trying to make ends meet, my ex was at home, draining the bank accounts and destroying important paperwork - anything to make it too difficult for me to leave. Eventually it was the police who intervened. I then used up nearly all of my annual leave taking time off to deal with the police, support services, counsellors and the court system. It was not sick leave because I had no physical injuries. I even told my manager and HR department what was going on and was told to take annual leave. Even now I'm still having to take time off work to try to gather the paperwork required to file for divorce and do the property split. This has meant that I have had no annual leave left to look after my children in the school holidays, and now as single mum without any financial support from her ex, this makes things very difficult. I understand that my 'personal issues' are not the responsibility of my employer, but just like if I was to become extremely sick, it would be nice to know that my employer would support me and give me time to get back on my feet without financial penalty. Perhaps 'domestic violence leave' is too specific, but surely the law should be changed so that we can use our sick leave for these kinds of circumstances. I have over 60 days of sick leave accrued which I was not allowed to use because I did not have a medical certificate (unless I was only going to take one day at a time, not attached to weekends or public holidays). The only way to have got around this would have been to try to get a medical certificate for my mental health - and this in itself would have impacted my work life as the stigma around having mental health problems is practically career suicide in this place.
I was in a similar situation but went to the doctor and got three weeks of medical certificates for personal leave so it could come out of my sick leave due to the situation and also if ur ex was charged with assault or there were crimes committed u can apply for victims of crime compensation for lost wages and u can also go to a domestic violence support service who can arrange a funding payment it is worth checking out we were given new camping equipment so we could get away and go camping as a break.
Well considering Liberal has allocated $100 million over 3 years to DV vs the $72 million over 3 years promised by labor, I'm not sure the labor vote would be the right move if funding is what you're after. Not enough funding from either party on this issue of course but one definitely comes out on top in terms of allocation.