Give victims leave
Escaping domestic violence is tough. But it can be just the beginning in a long list of daunting challenges that a woman — and in some cases a man — faces in the initial days after she finally leaves the family home.
Where will she go? How will she get the kids to school the next day? Where will the family eventually live? How will she find the time to obtain restraining and custody orders?
It’s difficult to imagine that anyone could go through that trauma and be able to return to work the next day and focus on her job. But that is what has been expected across Canada — until now.
This week Manitoba passed legislation to provide victims of violence paid and unpaid leave from work until they are safe from their abusers. And Ontario’s legislature has the opportunity to pass a similar private member’s bill from NDP MPP Peggy Sattler. It should do so as quickly as possible, before it dies on the order paper.
Sattler’s bill proposes requiring employers to give abuse victims up to 10 days of paid leave. It’s understandable that employers may balk at bearing that cost. But as Sattler argues, they are already paying for lost productivity whether they give time off or not.
Further, most victims do not take a full 10 days of time off. In Australia, where unions have negotiated contracts that give paid leave for victims of domestic violence, the average amount of time taken was two to four days, she says.
That’s a small price to pay compared to the cost of doing nothing to help victims escape violent situations. A 2014 national study by the Canadian Labour Congress and Western University’s Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children, for example, found that 82 per cent of respondents who had experienced domestic violence said it hurt their job performance.
Nearly 40 per cent said it made them late or miss work. And 8.5 per cent said it got them fired.
That’s all costly to business. Indeed, a federal justice department study found domestic violence cost employers $78 million annually in lost productivity and absenteeism.
And domestic violence doesn’t just affect the efficiency of victims. Nearly 30 per cent of co-workers in the CLC study said their work performance also suffered because of the stress they were feeling for their colleagues.
Better that employers give victims of violence a short paid leave to get on their feet so they can begin working productively again.
The Wynne government should endorse the principle behind Sattler’s bill and bring in a program along the lines of the one in Manitoba. It will pay off for both employees and employers in the long run.