Sidekicker's Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave Policy

Effective 1 February 2023, Sidekicker will provide ten days of paid family and domestic violence leave to our Sidekicks located in AU in compliance with the Australian Government’s requirements. This initiative aims to support our employees experiencing family and domestic violence.

Family and domestic violence can be defined as violent, threatening, or abusive behaviour that seeks to control or coerce the employee and causes them harm or fear by individuals known to them. These individuals may include a close relative, a household member, or a current or former intimate partner.

To access paid family and domestic violence leave, employees must provide evidence demonstrating that they took leave to deal with family and domestic violence. This evidence must satisfy a reasonable person that the employee took the leave to address the impact of family and domestic violence and that it was not feasible for them to do so outside their work hours. In addition, there must have been a shift that the Sidekick was scheduled to work that was withdrawn or not attended to due to this issue.

Employees can submit a statutory declaration, documents issued by the police service, or documents issued by a court or family violence support service as evidence.

As a company, we are committed to ensuring the confidentiality of our employees’ situations. Therefore, we will take reasonable steps to protect any information related to an employee’s situation when we receive it as part of an application for leave. Employers can only use this information to verify that the employee is entitled to family and domestic violence leave.

We encourage our employees to seek support from 1800RESPECT, the national domestic, family, and sexual violence counselling, information, and support service. Additionally, we offer all employees access to our Employee Assistance Program, which is completely confidential.