“If a new paid family and domestic violence leave entitlement is to be included in the National Employment Standards it is vital that it is able to be implemented by employers and that it is clear how it will operate. As it stands, there are elements of the current Bill that just aren’t workable from a practical perspective and need to be amended," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group, said today.

“These relate to uncertainties around how an employer would be expected to calculate the rate of pay in circumstances where they have variable remuneration. There is also real uncertainty around how it will apply to casual employees who don’t have set or guaranteed hours of work.

“Part of the cause of these difficulties is that the Bill adopts an approach that is very different from that proposed by the Fair Work Commission in the recent Family and Domestic Violence Leave Case. In various respects, the Bill appears to reflect the ACTU’s claims in the proceedings which were rejected by the Commission.

“Many of the problems that would arise from the implementation of the new Bill could be easily addressed by aligning the proposed entitlement with the views of the independent umpire, the Fair Work Commission, as to how such an entitlement should work," Mr Willox said.

For further details, read Ai Group's media release of 28 July 2022:
Domestic Violence Bill a significant departure from FWC proposal