All workers will be entitled to 10 days paid sick leave by 2026 under plans which have been approved by Cabinet.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar is expected to unveil the legislation on Wednesday, and announce it will be phased in to help employers deal with any additional costs.
Under the Sick Leave Bill 2022, approved by Cabinet on Tuesday, workers will be covered for three days from this year and this will rise to five days in 2024, seven days in 2025 and 10 days in 2026.
It will be paid by employers at a rate of 70 per cent of an employee’s wage, up to a daily maximum threshold of €110.
The threshold is based on 2019 mean weekly earnings of €786.33 and equates to an annual salary of €40,889.
The rate could be revised by ministerial order in line with inflation and changing incomes.
The employee will have to obtain a medical certificate to avail of statutory sick pay and the entitlement is subject to the employee having worked for their employer for a minimum of 13 weeks.
Mr Varadkar said, while he accepted many businesses are struggling with additional costs because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Covid-19 and Brexit, he believes it strikes a balance.
“It is why we have chosen to phase this in, in this way. We have made a big effort to design the scheme so that it’s easy to use, fair and affordable for employers.
“We’ve done a lot of consultation on this, with representatives from both the employee and employer side and although I know some will think it goes too far and others that it doesn’t go far enough, I think it has struck a fair and reasonable balance.”
At present, sick leave is provided to about half of all employees through their terms and conditions.
The new legislation states the plan does not prevent employers offering better terms or unions negotiating for more through a collective agreement.
Mandatory scheme
“Ireland is one of the few advanced countries in Europe not to have a mandatory sick-pay scheme and although many, we think approximately half, of employers do provide sick pay, we need to make sure that security, that safety net, is there for all workers, regardless of their job. It has to be one of the legacies of the pandemic. It will be available to all workers, regardless of their illness,” Mr Varadkar said.
Senior Siptu official Greg Ennis said the provisions being announced by Mr Varadkar do not go far enough and their introduction may be seen as an opportunity in some sectors to drop existing occupational schemes.
Referring to the situation in the State’s meat plants, Mr Ennis – the union’s manufacturing division organiser – said 38 per cent of workers in the sector had had Covid-19 during the first 22 months of the pandemic. He said incidence within the industry remains particularly high because workers are unable to afford to take sick leave when ill.
Addressing Siptu’s annual conference in Sligo, he said 93 per cent of the 15,600 workforce in the Irish red and white meat sectors do not have sick-pay provision.
“Consequently, they’re put in the invidious position of deciding whether to attend work or not when they have symptoms, because if you’re earning €450 or €480 a week, which is the basic pay for most of these workers, losing a third of your income by dropping to the enhanced illness benefit isn’t really an option.”
Mr Varadkar’s approach to dealing with this issue has been too slow, he added. “It’s also extremely limited in its structure with regard to getting into 10 days sick pay over four years. It’s not nearly good enough.”
