Recently I saw an article in the news regarding the apparent low take up rate of Australian workers accessing their right to Family and Domestic Violence Leave.

The Federal Labor Government had 10 days per year of this leave legislated several years ago while the USU negotiated it into their NSW Local Government State Award much earlier back in 2020 before the current Federal Labor Government was elected.

I believe that there are numerous reasons for the alleged low take up rate, including but not limited to a reluctance of victims to come forward for fear of recriminations, damage to reputation and a lack of confidence that should they access this leave that it will be kept confidential.

In regional communities in particular, many victims will fear that accessing the leave will get out.

While the intention of providing access to this leave is a very positive action, the need to address the legitimate fears of those who may seek to access it need to be addressed.

In 2025 the USU Women’s conference is scheduled to be held at Penrith on Sunday the 21st and Monday the 22nd of September leading into the USU’s full Annual conference, scheduled to start on Monday the 22nd through to Wednesday the 24th of September of which the focus for this year will be the issues that come out of the USU Women’s conference including Family and Domestic Violence Leave as well as Mental Health and how we as a Union can work with all relevant stakeholders including Government Departments, Minister’s Offices, Employer’s Associations, Industrial Commissions and others in seeking to discuss and adopt sensible and pragmatic protocols and even checklists to ensure that workers affected by Family and Domestic Violence and those affected by Mental Health issues, either themselves or in helping others suffering from either or both are properly supported in the workplace and by our Government services.

With the increasing use of harmful drugs such as ice rampant in every community, as well as pressures from cost of living, I believe that many good workers are suffering as a result and often this leads to them facing performance issues at work, which due to a lack of, or a reluctance to communicate as well a failure for all employers to consistently show understanding and to offer assistance when performance issues arise, rather than jumping straight into disciplinary action or unnecessary investigations that only exacerbate the situation, rather than the first thing which should occur is a non-confrontational approach in discreetly seeking to establish what is going on in the person’s life that may be causing the performance issues, and then seeking to provide advice and assistance to help the person rather than just punishing them or worse discarding them.

I will be the Acting USU General Secretary for this conference and I am excited and eager to see progress on these important issues by bringing all of those together who have the power to make the changes required.       

Stephen Hughes
USU Manager Northern