Government passes law allowing paid leave for victims of domestic violence

The government has approved the publication of the Work Life Balance Bill which will introduce paid leave for victims of domestic violence.

The Bill will introduce a series of measures to improve family-friendly work practices and support women in the labor market.

Once the legislation is in place, those who experience or are at risk of domestic violence will be entitled to five days of paid leave per year.

The government will support employers to help them develop policies on domestic violence in the workplace and to support workers who experience domestic violence.

The bill also includes three key measures to support families and carers.

These include the right to request flexible working arrangements for care purposes, for parents and carers; a right to leave for medical care, both for employees with children up to the age of 12 and for informal carers.

It also includes an extension of the current right to breastfeeding and breastfeeding breaks from six months to two years.

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Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman, who has said mass reception of Ukrainian refugees will become a bigger part of Ireland’s response to the crisis.

Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman said: “I am pleased to have received Cabinet approval to publish the Work Life Balance Bill.

“We are committed to ensuring that every child gets the best start in life, and supporting all parents to spend more time with their children in those precious early years is an important part of that.

“Through a wide range of measures, it will provide additional flexibility to ensure that parents and carers can be supported to balance work and family life.

“Importantly, the bill will also provide significant assistance to those dealing with domestic, sexual or gender-based violence.

“The government has always prioritized the issue of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and Ireland will now become one of the first countries in Europe to introduce a right to paid leave for victims of domestic violence.”

The government also approved the Domestic Violence Leave Report, which contains recommendations on how to best support workers dealing with domestic violence.

The report makes two important recommendations.

These include introducing some form of domestic violence leave and setting up support for employers to help them develop policies on domestic violence in the workplace to complement leave and better support workers who are too tired. dealing with domestic violence.

The department also said the minister intends to introduce legal provisions providing for some form of domestic violence leave as commission stage amendments to the work-life balance law and various provisions.