ALDI Australia has welcomed the Fair Work Commission’s proposed changes to all Awards to include 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave for full-time employees and pro-rata leave for part-time employees.
“With 13,500 employees and growing,” says ALDI Australia Managing Director – South Australia Viktor Jakupec, “we are proud of the motivated and passionate workforce we have created over the past 20 years.
“Part of our commitment to these employees is providing a healthy and safe working environment for them each and every day. We believe that understanding, respecting and valuing the uniqueness of our people makes us stronger and we acknowledge all employees, from stores to warehouses and our corporate offices, come from an array of different backgrounds and have varying personal circumstances.
“According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2.2 million Australians have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a partner and 3.6 million Australians have experienced emotional abuse from a partner. It would, therefore, be naïve to assume that a proportion of our people weren’t somehow impacted by violent, threatening or abusive behaviour from someone in their lives.”
On this week’s announcement from the Fair Work Commission, Mr Jakupec says ALDI Australia strongly supports the move to extend this important provision for the broader Australian workforce.
“We don’t consider our family and domestic violence policy as progressive or a luxury,” he says. “Rather, we see it as part of our responsibility to our people in recognising the issues in our society which may impact them.
“We take this responsibility seriously and understand our ability to make a significant difference by providing appropriate and fundamental safety and support measures to help those in our team who may be struggling.”