Negotiations on the implementation of changes in public service certified sick leave arrangements, which emerged from a binding Labour Court process last year, are at an advanced stage with unions expecting agreement by the end of this month. Under the 2012 Labour Court recommendation the new terms will generally be in place on 1^st January 2014.

Union negotiators, led by IMPACT, are pressing a number of issues, which include:

• Ensuring that schemes for occupational illnesses or injuries remain unchanged
• Establishing a broad definition of ‘critical’ illness which, under the new arrangements, will attract paid leave for longer than ‘non-critical’ illnesses
• Minimising the amount of sick leave taken prior to 2014 that will be considered when calculating an individual’s new certified sick leave entitlements
• Establishing that a consultant will not be required to certify that an illness is ‘critical’ in all situations.

Under the new arrangements civil and public servants who suffer long-term critical illness or serious physical injury will still be able to take six months paid sick leave, followed by six months on half pay. This is because IMPACT and other unions successfully argued in the Labour Court against management proposals to cut this to six months full pay followed by three months half pay.

Unions also successfully resisted management plans to limit the arrangement to a single critical illness or serious injury in a public servant’s career.

In the case of non-critical illnesses, however, the new arrangements will halve certified sick leave limits to three months on full pay, followed by three months on half pay in any four-year period. New restrictions on the so-called ‘pension rate,’ a small pension-based income for those whose paid sick leave is exhausted, also means that no public servant will now receive any kind sick leave payment for more than two years.

Significant changes to uncertified sick leave have already been introduced under the Croke Park agreement.