In Australia, employees may take urgent leave for their families when unforeseen circumstances arise, such as a car accident, childcare issues or a mental health problem. The National Employment Standards provide employees with leave entitlements regardless of contract terms or agreements, and cover the national workplace relations system.

It could be paid personal/carer’s leave, unpaid carer’s leave, paid or unpaid compassionate leave and now paid domestic violence leave. Employees can use these types of leave to deal with:

• A family emergency/unexpected emergency affecting an employee
• Childcare responsibilities (for instance, caring for disabled children)
• Personal matters
• Death or serious illness of immediate or close family members

Casual employees are entitled to two days of unpaid carer’s leave on certain occasions. Permanent full-time employees are entitled to ten days of paid personal and caregiver leave for every year of continuous employment – and pro-rata for part-time employees. Employees are entitled to two days of paid compassionate leave per circumstance, but this leave is unpaid if they are casual employees.

When defining immediate family members these are:

• Spouse/De-facto partners
• Children
• Parents or grandparents
• Grandchildren
• Siblings

Normal notification requirements will occur when taking family emergency leave – this could be a medical certificate or notification from the childcare centre etc.