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Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your employees has numerous individual and commercial benefits, such as improved mood, improved productivity, and reduced absenteeism in your workplace.
This extends to employees experiencing family and domestic violence. When an employee is experiencing family and domestic violence, they may be exposed to potential physical and emotional injuries, financial stress, coercive control, homelessness, isolation, and mental health vulnerability.
Understanding the entitlements for employees experiencing family and domestic violence will help you best support your staff and ensure workplace safety and legal obligations are adhered to.
What are my employee's entitlements?
Under the Fair Work Act, employees working in a small business dealing with the impact of family and domestic violence can:
- take up to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave per year
- request flexible working arrangements
- take paid or unpaid personal/carer's leave,or other forms of leave,in certain circumstances.
What if I need more guidance?
Providing access to FDV Leave Entitlements is relatively simple, as outlined in our guide, Leave and payment processes.
However, if you would like to obtain more information about your legal requirements and obligations, the Fair Work Ombudsman Small Business Guide to Family & Domestic Violence provides more details.
If you are still unsure, consider reaching out to your local legal aid service (see details below).
Legal aid
| Organisation | Contact Phone | Website |
|---|---|---|
| ACT Legal Aid | 1300 654 314 | legalaidact.org.au |
| NSW Legal Aid | Various offices | legalaid.nsw.gov.au |
| NT Legal Aid | 1800 019 343 | legalaid.nt.gov.au |
| QLD Legal Aid | 1300 651 188 | legalaid.qld.gov.au |
| SA Legal Services Commission | 1300 366 424 | lsc.sa.gov.au |
| Legal Aid Tasmania | 1300 366 611 | legalaid.tas.gov.au |
| VIC Legal Aid | 1300 792 387 | legalaid.vic.gov.au |
| WA Legal Aid | 1300 650 579 | legalaid.wa.gov.au |
Workplace training services
| Organisation | Contact Phone | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| DV Alert | N/A | Training services to assist frontline workers recognise and assist family and domestic violence victims. | dvalert.org.au |
| Institute of non-violence | 0450 713 624 | Provides workplace training on a range of family violence issues. | ionv.com.au |
Victim-Survivor Workplace Supports
Along with professional family and domestic violence awareness training programs such as DV Alert, connecting your workplace with victim-survivor advocates can be a practical and powerful method of enhancing family and domestic violence awareness, and providing the necessary skills to your employees. See table below for family and domestic violence victim-survivor advocates.
| Organisation | State | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre | Victoria | safesteps.org.au |
| Safe + Equal | Victoria | safeandequal.org.au |
| Victim Survivor Advisory Council | Victoria | vic.gov.au/victim-survivors-advisory- council |
| Engender Equality | Tasmania | engenderequality.org.au |
| Full Stop Australia | NSW and National | fullstop.org.au |
| Brisbane DV Crisis Centre | Brisbane | bdvs.org.au |
| Ruah Community Services | Perth | ruah.com.au |
| Embolden | Adelaide | embolden.org.au |
| YWCA | Canberra | ywca-canberra.org.au |
| Domestic Violence Crisis Service | Canberra | dvcs.org.au |
Mentally Healthy Workplace Supports
Along with professional family and domestic violence awareness training programs, ensuring you are creating a mentally healthy workplace helps to build a culture of trust to support employees to disclose incidents of family and domestic violence.
See table below for free mentally healthy workplace resources and supports currently available in your state or territory.
| State/Territory | Service | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| National | NewAccess Program for small business owners | NewAccess for Small Business is a free, confidential mental health coaching program, designed to help small business owners and sole traders manage stress, anxiety and overwhelm. | beyondblue.org.au |
| National | Ahead for Business | Provides tailored resources, check-ups and personalised action plans for small business. | aheadforbusiness.org.au |
| National | Mentally Healthy Workplaces Digital Platform | Developed by the National Mental Health Commission, this platform has been developed as a “one stop shop” for information and resources that helps organisations build mentally healthy workplaces, with resources divided into specific industries. | mentalhealthcommission.gov.au |
| ACT | WorkSafe ACT | Provides businesses with information on psychosocial hazards and psychological injury in the workplace. | worksafe.act.gov.au |
| ACT | Canberra Business Advice and Support Services (CBSS) | Delivers business advice, information, referrals and education events across all industry sectors and all stages of business for ACT-based businesses. | lighthouseinnovation.com.au |
| NSW | Workplace Mental Health Coaching | Provides free one-on-one coaching sessions to help businesses with 1 to 200 employees address issues or identify risks to mental health within their business. | nsw.gov.au |
| NSW | Workplace Mental Health Training | Provides free workplace mental health training to help you talk about and support mental health in your workplace. | nsw.gov.au |
| NSW | Workplace Pulse Check | Free 5-minute, 11-question check that provides a comparison on how mentally healthy your workplace is compared to others of the same business size and industry, as well as practical actions to improve your workplace. | nsw.gov.au |
| Northern Territory | Small Business Champions | Provides access to small business champions that can help identify supports for businesses to access including mental health. | nt.gov.au |
| Queensland | Small Business Wellness Coaches | Provides free one-on-one wellness coaches to help small business owners with unique and personal challenges, needs and opportunities. | business.qld.gov.au |
| Queensland | WorkSafe Queensland | Provides detailed information on psychological health and safety, with links to a range of valuable resources for employers on topics such as violence and aggression, health and wellbeing and more. | worksafe.qld.gov.au |
| Queensland | WorkSafe Queensland | Small business | Offers a range of resources specifically designed to support small businesses. | worksafe.qld.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/mental-health/mental-health-resources/small-business-resources |
| Queensland | Workers’ Psychological Support Service | Provides a free, confidential and independent callback support service for Queenslanders who are struggling mentally due to an injury at work. Call 1800 370 732 (during business hours) or info@wpss.org.au. Please note, this is not a crisis service. | wpss.org.au/ |
| South Australia | Healthy Workplace Services | A free service designed to help businesses navigate their workplace health and wellbeing journey. | healthyworkplaces.sa.gov.au |
| Tasmania | WorkSafe Tasmania | Offers a range of free resources to help businesses manage mental health in the workplace. | worksafe.tas.gov.au |
| Victoria* | Worker Mental Health Support Helpline | Offers free 24/7 mental health support for workers in small business. | telushealth.com |
| Victoria | Business Victoria | Provides services and resources to help sole traders, small businesses and their employees with stress, mental health and wellbeing. | business.vic.gov.au |
| Western Australia | WorkSafe WA | Inform and educates leaders and employees on what they can do to create a mentally healthy workplace, including providing a code of practice. | worksafe.wa.gov.au |
| Western Australia | Thrive at Work | Offers a comprehensive set of mental health support resources towards building a mentally healthy workplace. | thriveatwork.org.au |
*Victorian businesses will soon be able to also access free mental health coaching, funded by WorkSafe Victoria. This program is due to launch in 2025.