Paid family and domestic violence leave now in play for some ECEC services

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) approved providers who have 15 or more employees have been reminded of new Family and Domestic Violence Leave provisions which have been added to the National Employment Standards (NES).

The new leave means that employees in organisations or businesses with more than 15 employees are now entitled to 10 days of paid family domestic violence leave. This includes part-time and casual employees.

To help workplaces, including those in the ECEC sector to introduce this leave, the Fair Work Ombudsman has created the following:

• detailed website information covering paid and unpaid family and domestic violence leave
• hypothetical examples to show how the leave works in practice
• updated resources available, including an Employer guide to family and domestic violence and online learning courses
• referral information for those who need to access support services.

Employees can take this leave if they need to do something to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence. For those eligible, the leave has been added to the NES. This means it is now a minimum leave entitlement, like annual leave or paid sick and carer’s leave, and is protected as such.

Those who work in small organisations or businesses – those with 15 employees or fewer – will be able to access this paid leave from 1 August 2023. Up until then, employees can continue to take unpaid family and domestic violence leave. 

Further information and resources are available at Fair Work’s Paid family and domestic violence leave webpage.

Confidential information, counselling and support for people impacted by domestic and family violence is available at the 1800 RESPECT, the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.