Employees
Taking family violence leave
If you're affected by family violence, you may be able to take paid leave to get support, move house, go to court or care for children.
What is family violence?
Family violence is when a person harms or controls a family member or someone they are in a close and personal relationship with. The harm or control can be physical, non-physical, emotional, financial, sexual or a combination of these.
Family violence is sometimes referred to as domestic violence, which is a form of family violence. For more information on understanding the meaning of family violence see:
Understand family violence — New Zealand Ministry of Justice(external link)
What you’re entitled to
If you or a child that lives with you has been affected by family violence, you can take up to 10 days paid family violence leave if you:
- have 6 months’ current continuous employment with the same employer, or
- currently work and have worked for your employer for a total of 6 months at any time for:
- an average of 10 hours per week, and
- at least 1 hour in every week or 40 hours in every month.
It does not matter when the family violence took place.
Some employers offer family violence leave sooner. Check your employment agreement or your employer’s policy on leave for family violence, or with your manager or HR department.
Family violence leave is for people affected by family violence, not for people who commit family violence.
If you are on annual holidays and need to take family violence leave
If you qualify for family violence leave and need to take it while you’re on annual holidays, you can do this instead of using your annual holidays. You should tell your employer as soon as you can.
Unused family violence leave does not carry over
If you do not use your family violence leave in 12 months, you cannot carry it over to the next year. If you stop working for your employer, any unused family violence leave is not paid as part of your final pay.
Getting paid on family violence leave
If you qualify for family violence leave, your employer must pay you while you are on leave.
This must be at the rate of your relevant daily pay (or average daily pay, if applicable) for each day of family violence leave you take on a day you normally work — known as an ‘otherwise working day’.
Payment for family violence leave should be made in your normal pay cycle.
If you do not need a full day of leave, talk to your employer to see if you can take a part day or a number of hours. The Holidays Act 2003 describes family violence leave entitlements in days and does not divide it into part-days or hours. This means that if you work for part of the day and then use family violence leave for part of the day, it can be counted as using a whole day of family violence leave — no matter how much of the day you worked before going on leave.
Your employer can agree to give you your entitlement in hours or part-days if they want to. For example, if you worked a half-day and then used family violence leave for the remainder of the day, your employer could deduct only a half-day of family violence leave.
Your employer does not have to pay you if you are getting weekly payments from ACC.
Tell your employer you want to take family violence leave
You must tell your employer you want to take family violence leave as early as you can.
Proof of family violence
Your employer can ask you for proof that you are affected by family violence. They do not need to pay you until they get this proof unless you have a ‘reasonable excuse’. An example of a ‘reasonable excuse’ could be that you had to move home quickly and did not have the time to get proof.
Any proof that you or a child that lives with you has been affected by family violence should be sufficient. Some examples of proof might include:
- a letter or email about what’s going on and how it affects you from either a:
- support person
- support organisation
- doctor or nurse
- school
- a declaration — a letter of evidence witnessed by an authorised person like a justice of the peace
- any court or police documents about the family violence.
Your employer must protect your personal information
Your employer must protect your personal information. This includes:
- anything you tell them about your experience of family violence
- information about any family violence leave you have taken or need to take.
Your employer can use your personal information if it is necessary to protect your safety.
Privacy Commissioner — When personal information could be used(external link)
Under the Privacy Act, your employer can only collect information they need to carry out the function or activities of the organisation.
Privacy Commissioner — what information is my employer entitled to collect(external link)
Your employer must treat you fairly
Your employer must not treat you adversely — badly or unfairly — because of your experience of family violence. The law about this is set out in the Employment Relations Act and the Human Rights Act.
All people are protected from unlawful discrimination in the workplace. If you are treated adversely or discriminated against because you might be affected by family violence, this is against the law.
Asking for short-term flexible working
If you are affected by family violence, you have the right to request Can include changing the times or days an employee works, where they work from and how they do their work, for example, job-sharing. Employees can request flexible working arrangements at any time.
‘Working arrangements’ mean certain things that affect how you do your job. For example, what hours and days you work, where you work and what you do at work.
Your request must be in writing (unless your employer has a policy or procedure that says you can make this request verbally, for example, to your manager or someone else) and have:
- your name or the name of the employee (if you are making the request on behalf of someone else)
- the date the request is being made on
- a statement that you are asking for short-term flexible working arrangement under Part 6AB of the Employment Relations Act 2000
- what you want to change about your normal working arrangements
- how long you want these changes to last — up to 2 months
- when you want these changes to start and finish
- how these changes will help you
- an explanation of what changes you think your employer may need to make to their current business arrangements if they agree to your request.
Your right to make a request is not impacted by when you experienced family violence, even if you experienced family violence before you began working for your current employer or before the law changed on 1 April 2019.
You can use this form:
Short-term flexible work request form for employees affected by family violence [DOCX, 26 KB]
If your employer says no to your request for flexible working
If you are not happy with your employer's decision, try to resolve the problem with them — maybe there's an alternative arrangement that could meet everyone's needs. Your employer can only say no to a request if they:
- did not get the proof they asked for within 10 working days
- cannot change your working arrangements on 1 or more of the recognised business grounds, also referred to as ‘non-accommodation grounds’.
Recognised business grounds for declining a request
- Your employer cannot reorganise work among existing staff.
- Your employer cannot recruit additional staff.
- Quality and performance would be negatively impacted.
- There is not enough work during the periods you propose to work.
- Structural changes are planned.
- Additional costs would be a burden.
- The ability to meet customer demand would be negatively impacted.
If you think your employer has turned your request down unfairly
You can contact us for help if you think your employer has either:
- not followed the right process — for example, has not responded to your request within 10 working days
- got it wrong when they said no to your request to change your working arrangements — for example, they have not used the proper business grounds.
Help to keep you safe at work
Both employers and employees are responsible for having a safe and healthy workplace. If you are at risk of harm from family violence during work or in the workplace, your employer must take steps to help you be safe.
If there is something your employer can do that would help you, then consider asking for that. For example:
- more than 10 days of family violence leave if you need more time away from work
- keeping your flexible working arrangement in place for longer than 2 months — you can explain how this can help you manage the effects of family violence
- something specific to your situation — for example, a trespass notice to keep someone out of the workplace who is stalking you, a different work phone if someone is sending you abusive text messages or an alternative place you can work from if you usually work from home and can no longer do so safely.
If you are not getting what you are entitled to
If you think you’re not getting what you’re entitled to in the workplace, you should first talk to your employer. This could include if your employer is:
- refusing family violence leave
- not paying you for family violence leave
- not answering your request for short-term flexible working within 10 working days
- refusing your request without using the right ‘non-accommodation grounds’
- treating you adversely because you are affected by family violence.
Get support from a specialist organisation
If you think you or someone you know might be affected by family violence, you are not alone — you can get help. Specialist organisations can help you understand what’s going on in your family and whānau and give emotional and practical support. They can give you information about what you can do and tell you about services near you that might be able to support you.
It’s often a good idea to start by ringing a family violence specialist helpline or visiting their website.
Are you OK
This helpline is part of the ‘It’s not OK’ campaign to reduce family violence. They can give you information and help connect you to services if needed.
0800 456 450
Women’s Refuge
A bicultural organisation that works with women and children to provide support through advocacy, safety plans, emergency accommodation, and ongoing support. The Women’s Refuge helpline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you are worried about your online history being monitored, you can click on the computer screen icon in the footer on this website to chat online with Women’s Refuge with no browser history.
0800 733 843
Shine
The Shine helpline provides support, information, help with risk assessment and safety planning and referrals to local services. The Shine helpline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
0508 744 633
Download their Safer Homes booklet which can provide useful information about family violence, relevant laws and services, help available and how to access that help.
Safer homes in New Zealand (PDF, 3.2 MB)(external link)
Community Law
Your local Community Law Centre can provide you with free initial legal advice on how legal aid works, whether you might be eligible for the service, and the next steps.
Find your local Community Law Centre online:
Community Law — Our law centres(external link)
New Zealand Law Society
The Law Society has helpful information on family violence and protection orders.
Family Violence — New Zealand Law Society(external link)
Good Shepherd
Good Shepherd specialist support works alongside Women’s Refuge and Shine, ACC, WINZ and banks to help clients who experience economic harm and abuse to:
- help remedy unjust financial situations and reduce unreasonable debt
- access no-interest, fee-free loans and other financial wellbeing entitlements and tools
- help build financial capability and confidence.
0800 466 370 Option 4 (business hours)
or email the economic harm team at ehservice@goodshepherd.org.nz
Safe to talk
Safe to talk is a free, confidential and anonymous helpline for people affected by sexual violence.
0800 044 344