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.
The employee explained they did not feel comfortable telling their boss. “Deeply embarrassing” was how they described it. But the lack of explanation they provided in relation to the situation, led to the employer concluding they did not deserve to be kept on.
This is not an unusual scenario, as anyone who has experienced or witnessed domestic violence will know. The statistics are staggering: On average, one woman a week is killed by her partner. Furthermore, one in three women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence by someone they know. And for many years, before the wider Australian population knew anything about Rosie Batty, we sat in silence and watched as women were regularly treated like second class citizens as the violence continued.
Slowly, over time, we have started to make noise and with this, demanded a better standard and response in our communities and our workplaces.
One of the most recent noises was the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. Following an extensive inquiry over more than a year, the Royal Commission delivered a report to the Victorian Government, including more than 200 recommendations to address family violence. One recommendation was for the Victorian Government to lobby to amend the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act to include an entitlement to paid family violence leave for employees. The National Employment Standards are conditions of employment that apply as a minimum standard to most employees.
Having paid family violence leave is a vital key in addressing family violence. It allows women experiencing domestic violence to have time off work to attend medical appointments, or deal with police, or protect children, or attend court dates, or simply recover. It takes days to move house, or find a shelter to escape the violence. It provides time to deal with those short-term tasks of responding to domestic violence, but also ensures long-term financial stability.
Financial abuse is another form of domestic violence, and often women escaping violence will be left with little or no access to funds, and will often have a huge financial liability to ‘start over’. Gainful employment is, therefore, vital.
Employers benefit, too. Turnover adds extraordinary cost to a business, while keeping valued employees can provide peace of mind. It can also lead to more open and inclusive conversation between employers and staff. It can lead to recognition as an employer of choice and also prevents the need to defend unfair dismissal claims. And, it’s the right thing to do.
But changing the minimum employment entitlements is just the beginning. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is campaigning to have paid domestic violence leave as part of our national award system. Australian Services Union (ASU) members in 2010 bargained with the Surf Coast Shire Council to have domestic violence leave enshrined in an enterprise agreement. As a result of union support, many employees now have domestic leave as an entitlement.
Equal opportunity legislation should also have a protection for domestic violence victims. Further, a study conducted by RMIT University and Our Watch identifies that employing organisations can be crucial to changing the culture of domestic violence altogether.
Workplace cultures that are gender-progressive with female leaders and strong cultures of anti-misogyny (such as zero tolerance to sexual harassment), can assist in preventing violence against women as well.
So in my mind, the time for prevarication is over. A Shorten Labor Government has committed to making domestic and family violence leave a universal workplace right if Labor gets into power. Let’s tell all parties running for election on July 2 to do the same. It is something that we should want for our family members, our neighbours and our community.
And if you don’t agree, perhaps it will change your mind to learn that it was actually a man giving evidence about domestic violence who was fighting to keep his job at the Fair Work Commission.
Kelly Thomas is an employment law Associate at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers’ Melbourne office.
Top Comments
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.