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Statutory Domestic Violence Leave commenced on Monday 27th November 2023.

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Under the Parental Leave Acts and inserted by the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 employers are required to offer up to 5 days paid leave to employees who are subjected to domestic violence, over a period of 12 months.

The leave is to enable employees experiencing domestic violence to:

  • seek medical assistance;
  • obtain services from a victim services organisation;
  • obtain counselling;
  • relocate temporarily or permanently;
  • seek legal advice or assistance;
  • seek assistance from the Garda Síochána; or
  • obtain a safety order from the courts. 
     

There is no mandatory service requirement. In addition, an employee on domestic violence leave will continue to accrue annual leave and be entitled to public holidays during the period of leave.

Eligibility for domestic violence leave extends to an employee who is assisting a relevant person to access or obtain the supports outlined above. A relevant person includes a spouse, dependent child, or cohabitant. 

To help employers develop and implement a domestic violence leave policy, a new website, developed by Women’s Aid is available HERE.

The website includes a Policy Template and Guidance Note which underpins the legislation and allows employers to access free information sessions and an advice service for employers will be offered for the next six months.

Policy Template 
The template covers areas such as eligibility, disclosures, confidentiality, available supports and awareness and can be adapted by employers to reflect matters specific to their own workplace setting.  It is important for employers to note that the template contains statutory obligations in relation to the leave along with recommendations for other supports in responding to employees experiencing domestic violence leave.

Disclosing Information:  An employee will not be obliged to provide any supporting information to an employer when requesting domestic violence leave. However, the template encourages employees who may benefit from employer support to raise the issue with an appropriate person. 

The template introduces the concept of a “designated person” within the organisation who will have a primary role in responding to disclosures of domestic violence and abuse. This person will have received appropriate training on responding to disclosures, the provisions of the policy, and their limits in providing support. 

Confidentiality:  The template contains a key section relating to confidentiality, including what information an employer may retain on an employee’s personnel file and the limits of confidentiality.

Supports: The template lists suggested supports to employees that employers can consider providing, over and above the statutory entitlement to paid domestic violence leave.  These include additional special leave, financial support, and employee protections.

Guidance Note
The Guidance Note covers the eligibility, how to access the provisions of the employer’s policy, disclosures, confidentiality, supports, conduct in the workplace and awareness raising and training.  Mandatory obligations are clearly outlined along with considerations for discretionary supports.

Advance notice and supporting evidence: Domestic violence leave can be applied for retrospectively after the employee has taken the leave.  An employee will be required “as soon as reasonably practicable” after taking the leave, to notify their employer using the prescribed form of the dates on which the leave was taken. This facilitates situations where the leave is urgently required in unpredictable situations.

It also notes that while the Parental Leave Acts do not require evidence to support an application of domestic violence leave, there “may be very limited, exceptional circumstances in which an employer may consider it appropriate to request supporting documentation, however, in the context of this Note, it is not considered within the spirit of the provisions of the Act to request supporting documentation of any kind.”

Such information may of course be provided by employees on a voluntary basis. 

Working from home:  Where employees are expected to work from home all or some of the time, the Guidance Note recommends that an option to work from the work site is available to them when needed.  However, an employer should not make assumptions about an employee’s needs and, following a disclosure, it is recommended that they are consulted on their safety regarding their work setting if they work from home. 

Confidentiality:  One of the key issues for employers when administrating domestic violence leave and providing supports to employees experiencing domestic violence, relates to ensuring the confidentiality of their sensitive personal information.  The Guidance Note advises that an employer:

  • Aims to limit the number of individuals with access to the relevant confidential information; and
  • Adopts its existing practices for managing sensitive employee information to address domestic violence leave.

In addition, all records must be securely stored, kept confidential, and retained only as necessary. Colleagues who receive disclosures, whether initially or as part of risk management, must maintain confidentiality. Where an unauthorised disclosure takes place, it may be appropriate to invoke the disciplinary procedures.

Employers need to be mindful of just how sensitive information relating to domestic violence leave is and specifically to consider how they will record domestic violence leave on their internal systems and on employee payslips. 

Employees availing of the leave will be entitled to full pay.  Nonetheless, it is crucial that employers carefully consider how it is recorded on payslips to avoid unnecessarily disclosing that the employee has availed of the leave. 

Supports:  Employers should take time to consider the suggestions in the Guidance Note and determine what additional supports, if any, they will be able to provide to employees.  In considering what additional supports an organisation may provide, it will be important to ensure that it has the relevant resources including, a sufficient number of appropriately trained individuals within the organisation to implement these supports.

Workplace Safety Plan: An employer can support an employee who is experiencing domestic violence by including a safety and wellbeing planning process as part of its response i.e., a workplace safety plan.  The objective of a workplace safety plan is to determine what the employer can do to help the employee be safe at work.  A detailed workplace safety plan guide is at Appendix A of the Guidance Note.

Awareness Raising and Training:  Employees should be informed of their rights to domestic violence leave and how to access it. The Guidance Note sets out suggested options for raising awareness about the workplace response to domestic violence such as:

  • Have senior organisational leaders announce the workplace response.
  • Add information wherever employees access information related to health, safety, and wellbeing.
  • Post information in a conspicuous location in the workplace.
  • Include information in employee induction processes.

Different levels of training should be provided to employees based on their roles.

Redress

Employees who propose taking or who have taken domestic violence leave are protected against penalisation under the Parental Leave Acts.  Penalisation includes the dismissal of an employee, unfair treatment, including selection for redundancy and an unfavourable change to conditions of employment.

The maximum award under the Parental Leave Acts that can be made in favour of an employee who has been penalised is 20 weeks remuneration. Alternatively, where the penalisation was dismissal, an employee can take a claim under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015, under which the maximum award of compensation is 2 years remuneration.

Records

Employers are obliged to maintain a record of domestic violence leave taken by its employees noting the period of employment of each employee and the dates on which they took the leave.  This record should be retained for a period of three years.

Next Steps

  1. Employers should ensure they are clear about the statutory obligations and entitlements in relation to domestic violence leave and notify employees of their rights.
  2. Once the Regulations setting out how to calculate an employee’s full pay for domestic violence leave are published, they should be considered by those responsible for these calculations.
  3. Consideration should be given as to how domestic violence leave will be recorded on internal systems and on payslips bearing in mind the importance of confidentiality.
  4. Employers should identify those that will be responsible for implementing the leave and potential designated persons and ensure they avail of the free online training on offer as soon as possible. They can sign up through the new website: www.DVatWork.ie.
  5. A thorough review of the Template Policy and Guidance Notes should be undertaken. Employers should carefully consider what additional supports they will provide and put in place their full workplace response.  For many organisations, this is unlikely to be in place by 27 November 2023, given the short lead in time between the publication of these resources and the effective date of the leave.  It will be essential that those tasked with implementing an organisation’s response have received adequate training and have access to suitable and appropriate supports. Significant supports for employers are available through the above website at the following link: womensaid.ie
  6. Consider how to make the workplace a disclosure-friendly environment, such as visible senior leadership commitment, a range of practical support options, training and awareness-raising and ensuring employee trust when it comes to confidentiality. 
  7. Consider what other internal policies and procedures require updating to reflect an organisation’s response, including health and safety, disciplinary, remote / hybrid working, record retention, employee leave, employee communications, wellbeing, IT and payroll.   

Please click HERE for a Policy Template and HERE for Guidance Note

 

 

 

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