Australia's peak union and business organisations will help shape a new international convention on the impact of domestic violence and other forms of violence in the workplace.
The International Labor Organisation will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, this week and has asked for Australia's advice on the impact of domestic violence on workers and the workplace as part of a plan to develop a global convention on violence against women and men at work.
![The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Ged Kearney (pictured), will urge the ILO to follow Australia's ...](/web/20161008201037im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/c/6/8/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grrdmx.png/1475461452065.jpg)
Ged Kearney, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions will urge the ILO to follow Australia's lead in providing domestic violence leave.
"This is a really significant move by the ILO to recognise there needs to be an international labour standard around violence at work," Ms Kearney said. "While there are standards about physical violence and people being attacked at work, this is finally a recognition that the definition of violence is much broader than that.
"We set standards for bullying, emotional abuse and violence that comes through the threat of deportation."
The ACTU is running a test case in the Fair Work Commission for the introduction of a mandatory extra 10 days of paid leave for domestic violence victims. This entitlement would be incorporated into enterprise agreements.
"There is a whole world of gender-based violence, including intimidation and sexual harassment," Ms Kearney said.
"This includes family violence and how that spills over into the world of work and Australia leads the way in the world with respect to handling that very complex issue."
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will also attend the conference in Geneva and seek a realistic approach to setting an international labour standard in response to violence.
The Chamber's acting workplace relations spokesman Dick Grozier said his organisation was opposed to the mandatory provision of domestic violence leave.
"It is an inappropriate response to simply mandate up to 10 days' leave per year," Mr Grozier said. "In different contexts the need of the employee is different and different workplaces have different needs.
"What we'd be looking for is to have a discussion at the committee so that its recommendation sets the groundwork for a sensibly enforceable international labor standard."
Australia's Telstra is among companies that have endorsed 10 days of paid domestic violence leave in their enterprise agreement with staff.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated the cost of lost productivity to the Australian economy due to violence against women at $2.1 billion in 2014-15.
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