The new Federal Labor Government has introduced legislation to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 to provide for 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave in the National Employment Standards (NES).

This would replace the existing entitlement in the NES to 5 days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave.

If, as is expected, the changes will take effect, employees will have access to an entitlement to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave in a 12-month period. This will apply to full-time, part-time and casual employees.

Leave will paid at the employee’s full rate of pay for the hours they would have worked had they not taken the leave.

The definition of family and domestic violence has been expanded to include conduct of a current or former intimate partner of an employee, or a member of an employee’s household.

The new paid entitlement will commence on 1 February 2023, or 1 August 2023 for employees of small business employers (i.e. staff head count of less than 15 employees as at 1 February 2023).

The proposed change to the NES entitlement comes after the Fair Work Commission decided to increase the family and domestic violence leave entitlement in modern awards from 5 unpaid days to 10 paid days. (We discussed this in a previous bulletin, which you can revisit here.)