Introducing the National Employment Standard: 10 Days Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave for All Employees

Family Domestic Violence Leave

The Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022 has introduced a new National Employment Standard (NES): 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave in each 12-months period for all full-time, part-time and casual employees.

This entitlement will replace the current 5 days unpaid family and domestic violence leave as of 1 February 2023 (for businesses with 15 or more employees) and as of 1 August 2023 (for small businesses with less than 15 employees).

You are not required to issue new employment contract to reflect this change. However, we recommend putting in place a Family Domestic Violence Leave Policy or updating your current Leave Policy to ensure clear expectations and process. 

Come to work with me today

It’s Monday morning, I grab a coffee and get to my desk full of anticipation as I open my email, SEEK and LinkedIn Recruiter and various other social media accounts and recruitment platforms. I spent the week prior working on the job adverts making sure they accurately reflect the company’s culture, sharing them on social media, talking to the team and other clients about the vacancies and thinking intensely about where the ideal candidate may be currently working, what else do they do outside of work and which channels could get me to them.

After the past 2 years, I am no longer surprised to find 2 unsuitable applicants sitting in SEEK, 1 request from more information and 2 rejections saying that the salary is too low out of the dozens of candidates I approached.

I look at industry networks and associations, career pages, competitor websites and visa sponsorships. I commit to cover every centimetre of the internet.

I make a list of “giveaways” to present to my client:

• Can the role be part-time to accommodate a dad’s shared care responsibilities?
• Can you offer $5k more?
• Can you offer an extra weeks’ annual leave?
• Can you sponsor a Swedish?
• Can the role be 2 days from home?
• Can you salary package a car?
• Can the role be based in Cairns?

I make another list with recent market statistics and what these mean for my client:

• Despite a slight dip from August 2022, job vacancies remain 94.9% higher than they were in February 2020. In November 2022, in Queensland, 28.3% of businesses reported at least one vacancy.

Competition is though, it’s a candidate market (still!).

• 36.8% of the reported vacancies are in the admin and support services industry, only beaten by 45.3% in the accommodation and food services industry.

An admin role is not just an admin role and $50k salaries are off the table, off the market – just off!

• SEEK Salary Data reported a 4.4% increase in advertised salaries from November 2021 to November 2022.

Salary growth will continue to pick up.

• Migrant arrivals increased 171% from a year ago.

Surely you can put up with a couple of “s” missing and an Italian accent for that candidate with that Degree you really wanted and a salary expectation lower than your budget!

Then I get on the phone with that one person who wanted more information about the role. And the conversation goes pretty much like this:

• Candidate: I am really happy where I am right now, but I am always interested to learn about company like yours which (insert relevant praise). I am extremely passionate about (insert relevant industry) and this seems genuinely like a fantastic opportunity.
• Me: That’s great, I appreciate I approached you so what are the boxes the role needs to tick for you to give it serious consideration?
• Candidate: Well, I am currently on $xxx.000 ($30k over what the role offers) and I get to work from my pad in Byron Bay (company based in Brisbane 100% office based). I usually just work half days on Wednesdays because I have found that 34.2 hours per week give me the perfect work life balance (role requires on-call availability one weekend per month). Also, but I can be negotiable on this aspect, I usually take the school holidays off, as my kids come visiting from Melbourne where they live with their mum.
• Me:………………………………………………open a box of chocolates.