New Zealand parliament is scheduled to discuss the possibility of legislating paid leave to victims of domestic violence.

The country’s Parliament will debate a measure proposed by Green Party MP Jan Logie this week. If this Bill is adopted, domestic violence would be classified as a workplace hazard and would, therefore, allow victims to take up to ten days of additional paid leave from work.

New Zealand-based charity Women’s Refuge, for whom Ms Logie worked before entering parliament in 2011, recently published a study on the effects of domestic violence on employed people.

A survey of 450 victims found over 60 percent were employed full-time before they began an abusive relationship. However, little more than 27 percent kept their jobs throughout the time they were with a violent partner.

It’s common for abusers to try to exert control over their partners, particularly if they fear the victim will leave or is going to expose the violence.  One of the ways they might exercise power is by stopping them from working one way or another, explained Logie.  

"Jobs give victims an income and work colleagues who may be supportive”, so “it's a common thing for the abuser to want to break that relationship and increase the dependence,” she said.

Prime Minister Bill English has already confirmed he will not support the measure because there is nothing stopping employers from offering such leave on their own. Workplace Relations Minister Michael Woodhouse said that while he was sympathetic to the issue, there would be significant costs if enacted.

Ms Logie believes that it is the government of New Zealand’s responsibility to provide “an even playing field across the country” for domestic violence victims.

“It shouldn’t be luck whether you’ve got an employer who understands and has got these policies in place,” she said.

Despite resistance from members of the government, the bill has received support from a number of employers. Workplaces which already offer leave to victims tend to be larger companies so it would be a good idea to find out what the costs of such legislation would be to smaller businesses, the group suggested.

The situation for paid leave for domestic violence is similar in Australia.  The cost of paid domestic violence leave is one of the key arguments against its proposed inclusion by the Fair Work Commission of Australia into awards that would affect 1.5 million workers.

In the Australian private sector, more than half of organisations (of 100 employees or more) do offer access to some leave to victims of domestic violence, 12% have paid domestic violence leave, and 3.8% offer unpaid domestic violence leave.

Employers offering paid domestic violence leave to help employees meet legal, medical, counselling, relocation and other administrative commitments, include NAB, Telstra, Virgin Australia, PwC and some public sector organisations.

Published by Christine Weston
Divorce Resource