As the first law of its kind in Canada, Bill 8 establishes guaranteed paid job leave protection for victims of domestic violence who are dealing with the effects of abuse and need to take time off from work.
The law, which passed third reading on March 3 and received royal assent on Tuesday, will provide victims of domestic abuse with five paid days (taken at once or intermittently, if needed), five unpaid days and an additional 17-week unpaid period, if a victim needs to flee their situation and relocate.
In a Globe & Mail article published today, Gawronsky, who is currently attending the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN, recounts her own personal experiences when her mother fled with her children from an abusive situation. Her mother, Kathy, who was a teaching assistant at the time, asked her employer for a few days off, so she could file a restraining order and find a safe place to stay with her kids.
“They wouldn’t do it,” she says. “They said she had 48 hours to return to work or they would consider her terminated. And that’s what happened.”
The new law seeks to provide domestic violence victims with the support they need when fleeing an abusive situation; to help ensure the stress of losing their job isn’t added to an already incredibly stressful moment in the victim’s life.
“If her employer could just have given her a week to get a few things settled in her life,” said Gawronsky to the Globe & Mail. “You have no money, no shelter. How do you look after these children? The guilt is unbelievable. As a society, we need to be supporting each other.”
And that is precisely the purpose in passing Bill 8.
Read the full Globe & Mail article here