What is family violence?

Family violence includes physical, sexual, psychological, emotional or financial abuse.

How we will support people experiencing family violence

If you are affected by family violence you will not be discriminated against or treated unfairly.

Where possible we will protect the privacy of persons who are experiencing family violence.

McElroys will comply with the Domestic Violence – Victims Protection Act 2018. Our employees may take up to 10 days of paid domestic violence leave if they are affected by family violence, in addition to annual leave and sick leave. McElroys will also consider discretionary leave for an employee who is supporting a family member affected by family violence. This leave is granted at the discretion of the practice manager or supervising partner and is separate to family violence leave.

We may ask the affected person to provide supporting information from the police, government departments, a health professional or a family violence support specialist.

McElroys may also assist employees or independent contractors experiencing family violence by:

• Consulting with them about how we can support them.
• Assisting with making and implementing safety plans for affected employees, which may include:
  • Flexibility in work hours and days of work, place of work, and duties at work. McElroys will also consider requests for permanent changes to any of those items.
  • Restricting who may enter our premises or contact the employee via a McElroys phone or email address.
  • Accompanying employees to their choice of transport from work.
  • Such other measures as are reasonably required.
• Making referrals to agencies that specialise in supporting those experiencing family violence.
• Providing access to counselling through EAP or other specialist services.

If you are an employee or independent contractor of McElroys and you are experiencing family violence you can speak to the practice manager or a partner about how we can support you. You may have a support person with you when speaking to us. If you are unable to, or you do not feel comfortable speaking to the practice manager or a partner, you may ask another person to approach them on your behalf.

McElroys may assist other persons affected by or experiencing family violence by:

• Consulting with the person about how we can support them.
• Recording confidentially on the file that the person is experiencing family violence.
• Implementing safety plans, including restricting who may enter our premises or communicate with us by phone and/or email and safe methods of communication.
• Keeping your personal information secure and confidential, including email and physical addresses and phone numbers.
• Limiting access to client information to authorised employees.
• Referrals to agencies that specialise in supporting those experiencing family violence.

A person experiencing family violence may be a vulnerable customer. Please refer to McElroys vulnerable customer policy and client reporting requirements where applicable.

McElroys will treat all information about persons in or attending our workplace who are experiencing family violence as sensitive personal information and we will comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1993 in respect of that information.

Publication

McElroys family violence policy will be available:

• On our website.
• On our intranet.
• On the request of any person covered by this policy, a copy will be provided within two working days. A list of resources and agencies to support those experiencing family violence will be available on our intranet.

Policy Review

McElroys will review this policy annually.