The Sick Leave Act will, for the first time, introduce an entitlement for all employees to sick leave paid by their employer in addition to illness benefit from the State.

Workers will be entitled to three days’ paid sick leave in the first year of operation, rising to five days in year two, seven days in year three with employers eventually covering the cost of ten days in year four.

Sick pay will be paid by employers at a rate of 70% of an employee’s wage, subject to a daily maximum of €110.

The law was passed by the Oireachtas in July but it won’t come into effect until the new year.

“Given the current challenging business environment and inflation in particular, I have concluded that the fairest and most appropriate approach is to introduce the entitlement on 1 January 2023,” Mr Varadkar said.

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The fund is being supported by some of Ireland’s top corporate food and investment experts, including ex-Kerry Group boss Stan McCarthy, former Unilever chief Niall FitzGerald, Musgrave head Noel Keeley, and senior managers from Coca-Cola and Tate & Lyle.

The Redesdale Food & Beverage Fund plans to identify, invest, and provide corporate advice to Irish food start-ups. It is targeting companies developing healthy foods that can be scaled up and sold into international markets.

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All workers to get 10 days paid sick leave phased in between now and 2025.

Small, independent retailers and their trade bodies have raised concerns regarding affordability and impact on the viability of their businesses.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD announced further details of his new law to give all workers the right to paid sick leave.

The Government’s statutory sick pay scheme will be phased in over a four-year period, starting with three days per year in 2022, rising to five days payable in 2023 and seven days payable in 2024. Employers will eventually cover the cost of 10 sick days per year in 2025. It’s being phased in to help employers, particularly small businesses, to plan ahead and manage the additional cost, which has been capped.

The Tánaiste said: “Ireland is one of the few advanced countries in Europe not to have a mandatory sick pay scheme and although about half employers do provide sick pay, we need to make sure that every worker, especially lower paid workers in the private sector, have the security and peace of mind of knowing that if they fall ill and miss work, they won’t lose out on a full day’s pay. I believe this scheme can be one of the positive legacies of the pandemic as it will apply to illness of all forms and not just those related to Covid.”

Sick Leave Bill 2021

The Government today approved the drafting of the General Scheme of the Sick Leave Bill 2021. It will be the latest in a series of actions that have improved social protections for workers and the self-employed over the last five years, including paternity benefit, parental leave benefit, enhanced maternity benefit, treatment benefit and the extension of social insurance benefits to the self-employed

Sick pay will be paid by employers at a rate of 70% of an employee’s wage, subject to a daily threshold of €110. The daily earnings threshold of €110 is based on 2019 mean weekly earnings of €786.33 and equates to an annual salary of €40,889.16. It can be revised over time by ministerial order in line with inflation and changing incomes.

Daily cap

The rate of 70% and the daily cap are set to ensure excessive costs are not placed solely on employers, who in certain sectors may also have to deal with the cost of replacing staff who are out sick at short notice. The Bill is primarily intended to provide a minimum level of protection to low paid employees, who may have no entitlement to company sick pay schemes.  The legislation will expressly state that this does not prevent employers offering better terms or unions negotiating for more through a collective agreement.

Medical certificates

Other features of the scheme are that an 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 six months.  Once entitlement to sick pay from their employer ends, employees who need to take more time off may qualify for illness benefit from the Department of Social Protection subject to PRSI contributions.

The Tánaiste also published a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on the Sick Leave Bill.

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RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley took part in an online Economic Forum meeting with Tanaiste Leo Varadkar following the announcement of the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan on Tuesday 1st June. Buckley told the meeting that independent retailers were finding it challenging to recruit additional staff for Summer work. She also urged the Government to ensure that the Town Centre First policy was not diluted as it was an important part of delivering recovery and regeneration in towns throughout the country.

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“Shop owners and policyholders are sick of being fleeced by insurance companies. Don’t just leave it up to them to ponder on the impact that insurance reforms should have on premiums. Get an expert to set out in no uncertain terms the reductions the Government expects to be delivered. Our experience to date is that, if left to their own devices, insurance companies will use savings to drive up their own profits and hard pressed shop owners and other policy holders will still be paying unsustainably high premiums,” says RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley.

RGDATA has urged the Tánaiste to appoint an independent expert to review the reforms to date and set out the level of reduction that should be passed on to hard pressed shop owners and all other impacted by Ireland’s unsustainable insurance costs.

The Cabinet sub committee on Insurance reform met on Wednesday 24 March to review progress on insurance reform. Update in IF&CR next week.

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