Delegates at Fórsa trade union’s conference in Killarney last week gave their unanimous backing to a motion calling for statutory paid leave for victims of domestic violence.

The union’s national secretary Ashley Connolly said the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the need for society to deliver a better response to victims of domestic violence, and the urgent need for the political system to legislate for the right to statutory paid leave as part of a package of workplace measures to assist victims of domestic violence.

Proposing the motion on behalf of the union’s national executive, Ashley said these measures were necessary because women living with, or escaping from domestic abuse, are far more likely to have several urgent and important appointments to attend.

“These include medical visits, legal proceedings, counselling for themselves or their children, changing children’s schools. Most can’t do this outside working hours, either because the services aren’t available or, worse, because they need to hide this from their abusers.

“Victims end up having to take unpaid leave, use up annual leave, or even miss work and risk losing the very job that gets them out of an abusive situation, if only for a few hours each day,” she said.

She told delegates that lockdown phases during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic “brought the living nightmare of being locked up with your tormentor for weeks on end” for women, children and men experiencing domestic violence. Ashley drew on data from the advocacy group Safe Ireland, which found that nearly 3,500 women and 600 children contacted a domestic violence service for the first time during the opening six months of the pandemic: “This equates to 19 women and three children every day,” she said.

She said 249 women had died violently in Ireland between 1996 and 2022, one in four women in Ireland have been subjected to some form of abuse, while studies have found that 40% of victims said the abuse affected their ability to get to work, and almost 60% said they had to take time off work as a consequence the abuse.

The successful conference motion commits the union to actively campaign to legislate for an effective statutory entitlement to paid leave for victims of domestic violence, encourage the union’s networks to raise the issue of workplace supports for victims and survivors of domestic violence with employers in their sectors, and investigate the potential of extending the union’s existing counselling service to include a dedicated confidential service for victims of domestic abuse and gender-based violence.

The conference saw several motions on domestic and gender-based violence tabled by a number of union branches. Fórsa’s North Dublin/North Leinster special needs assistants branch said domestic violence leave would make a huge difference to those already in hardship but would be of minimal cost to employers.

SNA delegate Linda O' Sullivan spoke in support of required legislation, citing figures that suggested there had been almost 50,000 reports of abuse to An Garda Síochána last year.

"Domestic violence is indeed very much the shadow pandemic of this country, The real figure is certainly higher. As a union representative I repeatedly see members having to resort to using sick

leave. But they are not sick. They’re being abused. Domestic violence is a serious crime, and rates soared through the various lockdowns,” she said.

The union’s Kildare Health branch called on the union to investigate opportunities to collaborate with organisations working in communities to improve understanding of the root causes of gender-based violence, and encourage attitude and behavioural changes.

Anne Collins, from Fórsa’s Legal and Professional branch, told delegates that her colleagues in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had seen "a massive increase during the pandemic of files received concerning domestic violence and gender based violence," and said the office is now working on a strategic plan to improve the treatment and the experience of victims when they go to court, in conjunction with other bodies in the criminal justice system.

Ashley said there had been some progress in the provision of services and much-needed help and advice. “But the lack of legislation on paid leave for victims of domestic abuse and gender-based violence deepens the vulnerability and hardship that ruins individual lives, which can have an effect across several generations,” she said.