The Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022 has been passed by both houses of the Federal Parliament and is awaiting Royal Assent.

UPDATE: Royal Assent given on 9 November 2022.

The Bill will increase the existing National Employment Standards leave entitlement for employees experiencing family and domestic violence by providing for paid leave and doubling the amount of leave
that can be taken in a 12 month period of employment.

The increased entitlement in the Bill will:
• provide ten days of paid family and domestic violence leave in a 12 month period for full-time, part-time and casual employees;
• provide for employees to access paid family and domestic violence leave at their full rate of pay for the hours they would have worked had they not taken the leave, to minimise the financial impact of family and domestic violence;
• extend the definition of family and domestic violence to include the conduct of a current or former intimate partner of an employee or a member of an employee’s household; and
• extend the full paid entitlement to all employees when the International Labour Organisation Convention (No. 190) concerning Violence and Harassment comes into force for Australia.

Regulations will be made preventing an employer from recording paid family and domestic violence leave on an employee’s pay slip as the inclusion of information about an employee’s paid family and domestic violence leave entitlement on a pay slip could present a danger to employees.

To provide time for payroll and other necessary adjustments, the new paid entitlement would commence on 1 February 2023 for employees employed other than by a small business
employer.

An additional transition period of six months would be provided for employers who meet the definition of small business employer in the Act as at 1 February 2023.

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