Amy Schwebel of Working Women’s Centre Victoria, said adding family violence as a protected attribute under the Equal Opportunity Act is essential to ensuring all workplaces are inclusive and equal.

“Everyone deserves to be safe, respected and protected at work. That’s the future Working Women’s Centre Victoria is working towards,” Ms Schwebel said.

“Experiencing family violence should never be a reason to lose your income, miss out on job opportunities, or be treated unfairly.

“When women and non-binary people dealing with family violence are given genuine flexibility at work, they can manage their safety, health and wellbeing. This can and should include getting time off to attend court, care for their children or change their schedule or relocate to get safe.”

The Working Women’s Centre Victoria encourages the Victorian Parliament to update the Equal Opportunity Act with this important change as soon as possible.

We thank the Member for Northern Victoria Georgie Purcell, whose advocacy helped build momentum for this much-needed reform to be introduced by the Victorian Government.

The issue right now

Family violence is not just a private or personal issue. When an employee is living with family violence, there are often very real costs and negative impacts that flow to the workplace. The 2011 National Domestic Violence and the Workplace Survey found that nearly half (48%) of respondents who reported experiencing family violence said the violence had affected their ability to get to work.

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s factsheet, Domestic and family violence – a workplace issue, a discrimination issue, highlights the different ways workplace discrimination can affect victim-survivors of family violence. This can include being denied leave or flexible work arrangements needed to manage violence-related matters, such as attending court or moving to a shelter, as well as being demoted, transferred or having their employment terminated for reasons connected to the violence they are experiencing.