What is family violence
The term ‘family violence ’ means violence from anyone the person has or had an intimate or family relationship with – for example romantic partners, grown-up children, flatmates – whether they live with them or not. It includes:
- physical abuse
- sexual abuse
- psychological abuse – for example intimidation, damage to property, threats of abuse, financial or economic abuse.
A person is affected by family violence if:
- they have experienced domestic violence
- a child living with them has experienced family violence – even if the child doesn’t live with them all the time.
What you need to know
You must do the following:
- Give employees affected by family violence up to 10 days of family violence leave per year, once they have worked for you for six months continuously or meet the hours worked test.
- Give people family violence leave even if the abuse was before they became your employee.
- Pay employees the equivalent of their daily pay, or average daily pay, for each family violence leave day that would have been a workday.
- Change annual leave to family violence leave if an employee qualifies for family violence leave while they are on holiday.
- Consider giving the person flexible work arrangements for up to two months to help them deal with the effects of the violence.
- Respond to requests for flexible working arrangements in writing within 10 working days, but sooner if you can.
- Give your employee information on family violence support services when giving your written answer, or before.
- If you can’t accommodate their request, tell them why.
- If an employee is experiencing family violence, or if you think they are, don’t discriminate against them or treat them differently from any other employee.
Workplace records
Document your commitment to creating a supportive workplace that also complies with legal requirements to give family violence leave.
It’s a good idea to create a family violence policy – our Workplace Policy Builder can help you with this.
Add family violence leave to your employment contracts – our Employment Agreement Builder has legally-safe clauses you can use.
Asking for proof
Be aware domestic abuse often happens behind closed doors and can be difficult to prove. The law expects employee and employer to be open, honest and responsive. You are expected to treat each other in good faith .
You can ask your employee for proof to show how they are affected by family violence . If you ask for proof, you must do this within three working days after your employee asks to change their work pattern – but it’s a good idea to ask sooner, if possible.
The employee may not be able to provide police or court documents, like a protection order.
They may be able to provide:
- a letter or email from a support service
- report from a doctor or nurse
- report from a school.
You can also talk to someone who can confirm their situation and how it affects them.
If you ask for proof, you don’t have to pay family violence leave until your employee provides it. But if they have a reasonable excuse, you must still pay – for example, they have had to move house in a hurry.
Leave entitlement
Employees are entitled to up to 10 days of paid family violence leave each 12 months if they:
- have worked for you continuously for six months, or
- meet the hours worked test.
The hours worked test is when employees have worked:
- an average of at least 10 hours a week
- at least one hour a week or 40 hours a month.
Employees can’t carry forward unused leave. If the person leaves, you don’t need to pay out family violence leave that they haven’t taken.
Employees must tell you they want to take family violence leave as soon as they realistically can.
They might use family leave to:
- get help from a domestic violence support service
- move house
- support affected children
- have counselling.
If an employee needs more than 10 days, or doesn’t qualify, you might allow them to:
- take annual holiday
- take leave without pay.
You may decide to give an employee more than 10 days of paid family violence leave.
You don’t have to pay an employee while they are getting weekly ACC payments.
Short-term flexible working
You must consider giving people affected by family violence permission to work flexibly for up to two months, or more if you wish.
A flexible work arrangement could include:
- work hours and days
- where an employee works
- an employee’s duties
- contact details they share with you.
Making a request
Requests for short-term flexible working can come from the employee, or someone asking on their behalf.
It must:
- be made in writing
- include the start and end date of the suggested changes
- indicate how the changes will help the employee deal with the effects of the violence
- explain what you may have to do to accommodate the changes – for example, ask somebody else to cover their work, schedule a weekly meeting on a different day.
All employees can ask for flexible working for any reason, at any time.
Dealing with a request
You must let your employee know your decision as soon as you can, but you have up to 10 working days to respond. You must respond in writing.
You can ask for proof of how the family violence is affecting the person – see the ‘Asking for proof’ section above.
You must give your employee information on specialist support services. You must do this when you give your employees your decision, or sooner.
Examples include:
- Family Violence Information Line
- Whare Rokiroki (Māori Women’s Refuge)
- Women’s Refuge
- Shine
- Safe to Talk.
Refusing a request
You can only refuse a request if:
- you’ve asked for proof but the employee doesn’t provide it
- you can’t reasonably accommodate their request.
You may not be able to accommodate their request if:
- you can’t reorganise work among other staff
- you can’t recruit extra staff to cover hours they ask to be excused from work
- there isn’t enough work for the person during the hours they’ve asked to work.
Discrimination
Discriminating against people affected by family violence, both employees or job applicants, is a human rights issue.
If a person believes they have been discriminated against, they can:
- raise a personal grievance if they’re an employee
- complain to the Human Rights Commission if they’re an employee or a job applicant.
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