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Update 09/11/2022

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Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave

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The Federal Government has introduced (PFDVL) has now been legislated as part of the Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022 bill to parliament. The bill proposes to introduce 10 days paid leave per year for employees who are experiencing domestic or family violence.

In its current form the bill proposes that Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave will be:

• an upfront, capped entitlement of 10 days per year that will not carry over across service years

• applicable to full-time, part-time and casual employees

• paid at rate that the employee would have been paid had they worked that day.

The legislation is proposed to take effect as of 1 February 2023, with an additional 6 month transition period for businesses that meet the definition of a ‘small business’

You can read the proposed bill at: 2258b01.pdf;fileType=application/pdf (aph.gov.au)

You can read the explanatory memorandum at: JC007042.pdf;fileType=application/pdf (aph.gov.au). It allows employees to take ten days of paid leave if they are experiencing family and domestic violence.

The following are the key details of PFDVL:

• it becomes effective on 1 February 2023 for businesses with 15 or more employees and 1 August 2023 for businesses with fewer than 15 employees

• it applies to full-time, part-time and casual employees

• the entitlement is for ten days, up-front paid leave per service year (not pro-rated for part-time and casual employees)

• the unused balance of entitlement does not carry over from one service year to the next

• when taken, it is paid at the same rate that the employee would have been paid had they worked on that day (or part day if part day leave is taken)

• if an employee experience an episode of family or domestic violence while on personal/carer’s leave or while on annual leave, PFDVL will take precedence over the other form of paid leave

• the entitlement balance cannot be displayed on payslips

• when the leave is taken and paid, the payslip cannot identify that the payee has been paid for PFDVL

• the balance of unused entitlement cannot be paid out during service or on termination of employment

• when taken, it must be reported as paid leave type Other Paid Leave (O) in Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting.

What can you do to prepare?

To prepare for the introduction of PFDVL, it is recommended that you do the following:

1. Create an absence type for PFDVL (for more information, see Absence type configuration)

2. Create a leave type for PFDVL (for more information, see Leave type configuration)

3. Add the absence type for PFDVL to the applicable employment types (for more information, see Employment type configuration).

Absence type configuration

Because payments of PFDVL must be reported in STP as paid leave, a leave type must be configured in FastTrack360 so that the payment can be mapped to the correct leave payment category in STP reporting.

A leave type must be linked to an absence type, which is what is selected on a timesheet to identify a period of absence during what would otherwise be working hours. Therefore, before a leave type can be created for PFDVL, an absence type must be created specifically for PFDVL.

To create an absence type, follow the procedure below:

How to create an absence type
	FastTrack360, in the module menu on the left-hand side of the screen, click Maintenance. The Maintenance screen opens.
2.	In the Global section of the screen, click Absence/Attend. The Attendance/Absence screen opens.
3.	At the top of the Absence section in the second half of the screen, click Add . The Add Absence screen opens.	Image Added
4.	In the Name field, key a unique name for the absence type (see note below) and click Save. The Add Absence screen closes and the new absence type is created.

Leave type configuration

Because payment for PFDVL taken must be reported through STP reporting as a disaggregated leave payment separate to other gross payments, you must create a dedicated leave type under Leave > Maintenance > Leave Type that is mapped to Other Paid Leave (O) category.

The table below is how FastTrack recommend that the leave type for PFDVL should be configured. Note that any fields not specifically mentioned below should remain blank or, where applicable, set to their default value.

Payment rate for leave taken

When a payee takes PFDVL each day or part day of absence must be paid at the equivalent to what they would have been paid had they worked. The payment must be inclusive of the base pay rate and any loadings, overtime, and any other additional payments that the payee would have been paid for the time they were rostered to work.

The entitlement to PFDVL is defined as ten ‘days’ per service year but the relevant legislation does not define how many hours the ten-day entitlement equates to. This is problematic, especially regarding casual and temporary workers who are generally paid on an hourly basis, have varying patterns of work, and could be placed on multiple assignments, which each have different pay rates, at any given time.

Although it is possible to configure pay agreements to pay a daily equivalent rate of what a payee would have otherwise been paid had they worked instead of taking an absence, the complexity of configuration that would be required and the potential number of agreements and rates that would need to be updated would offset any benefits given that the volume PFDVL that will be paid is expected to be low.

Therefore, FastTrack recommend the following:

• The Leave Rate Type that is selected on the leave deduction rule should be set Agreement Rate to pay the leave taken at an hourly equivalent rate of what the payee would have been paid had they worked.

• If a payee has taken PFDVL, the relevant absence type should be selected on their timesheet for the corresponding days of absence and the quantity taken should be keyed in terms of days (or part days) rather than hours. For example, if the payee has taken 8 hours leave on a given day, and that equates to the entire day the payee was scheduled to work on the corresponding date, a value of 1 should be keyed as opposed to 8 hours.

• When the timesheet is paid in a pay batch, the system will pay the hourly agreement rate multiplied by a unit of days (e.g. quantity = 1, rate = $34.95 per hour). At the Leave Payments pay batch stage, the payment rate will need to be manually adjusted to reflect the total amount that would have otherwise been paid had the payee worked. For example, if the payee would have worked 8 hours that day at an agreement rate of $34.95 per hour, the payment rate must be adjusted to $279.60 (i.e. 8 x $34.95 per hour).

Employment type configuration

To identify which payees are entitled to take PFDVL, the absence type that you created for PFDVL and have linked a leave type must be added to each employment type that applies to entitled payees.

For more information about adding an absence type to an employment type, see Employment Type Maintenance.

More information

You can find more information about PFDVL by following the links below:

• New paid family and domestic violence leave - Fair Work Ombudsman

• Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022

• Fair Work Amendment (Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2022 - Explanatory Memorandum