Call for legal sick pay provision
by Mehak Dugal
 
At present, workers in Ireland do not have a legal right to sick pay and it lies solely at the discretion of the employer to include or not in a contract of employment.
At present, workers in Ireland do not have a legal right to sick pay and it lies solely at the discretion of the employer to include or not in a contract of employment.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has called on the Government to make sick pay provision mandatory for all workers in the country.

 

The move came as a poll of 1,200 people, conducted by Ireland Thinks last weekend, found that 87% of people support a legal right to sick pay for all workers.

 

At present, workers in Ireland do not have a legal right to sick pay and it lies solely at the discretion of the employer to include or not in a contract of employment. While Fórsa has negotiated sick pay arrangements for almost all its members, up to half the country’s workforce have no sick pay provision.

 

This includes hundreds of thousands of low-paid essential workers and other vulnerable employees.

 

By contrast, virtually every other European country requires employers to pay workers – in full or in part – when they are unable to work because of illness.

 

Last Monday ICTU published a guide to sick pay, which showed how Ireland falls behind European norms. Its general secretary, Patricia King, said most high-income European countries guaranteed at least two weeks of full sick pay.

 

She said the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the failings of Ireland’s system to protect workers against the loss of income, including the lack of a legal entitlement to sick pay.

 

ICTU’s social policy officer, Laura Bambrick, said that country’s voluntary system of sick pay was not working.

 

“Ensuring workers are well at work is a basic issue of safety and simply the right thing to do. When workers are unwell they need to rest to recover. When sick workers stay home they reduce the spread of infection and the risk of workplace accidents; they keep us all safe,” she said.

 

ICTU is contacting all Oireachtas members to call on them to legislate for paid sick leave in line with workers’ rights in the rest of Europe.

 

Read ICTU’s guide HERE.

 

It’s never been more important – or more easy – to get the protections and benefits of union membership. Join Fórsa HERE or contact the union HERE.

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