FIX THE STATUTORY SICK LEAVE ACT 2022

In 2022 Ireland introduced new legislation to mitigate damaging impacts of unpaid sick leave.  The impetus for the legislation was the Covid19 pandemic, when the consequences of failing to address the needs of the vulnerable became apparent. The absence of paid sick leave forces ill workers to decide between caring for their health or income, choosing between deteriorating health or risking impoverish themselves and their families. It is a decision the many low paid workers simply cannot afford to choose. There is no doubt that working while sick comes at a costs, both to the employee in terms of increased health risk and a longer recovery time and to the employer in lower productivity.

The statistics show that the Irish worker misses on average a little less than 4 days work and that means the average workers should be protected by the legislation. As the saying goes, sounds good on paper, however many employers are using a loophole section 9 Non-application of obligations under Act in the legislation to deny their employees of all financial safety in times of illness. Many employers are claiming that their illness benefit scheme is better overall because after a waiting period of several days they pay a period greater than the government mandated 5 days. The issue arises because all other safety nets have been removed, there is no access to social welfare, and so the low income worker who needs the money for necessities, is poverty stricken  and debilitated, exacerbated by this legislation.

   
Non-application of obligations under Act
|  | 9. (1) The obligations under this Act shall not apply to an employer who provides his or her employees a sick leave scheme where the terms of the scheme confer, over the course of a reference period set out in the scheme, benefits that are, as a whole, more favourable to the employee than statutory sick leave.
|  | (2) In determining, for the purposes of subsection (1), whether a sick leave scheme confers benefits that are, as a whole, more favourable than statutory sick leave, the following matters shall be taken into consideration:
|  | (a) the period of service of an employee that is required before sick leave is payable;
|  | (b) the number of days that an employee is absent before sick leave is payable;
|  | (c) the period for which sick leave is payable;
|  | (d) the amount of sick leave that is payable;
|  | (e) the reference period of the sick leave scheme.
|  | (3) In this section—
|  | “collective agreement” means an agreement by or on behalf of an employer on the one hand, and by or on behalf of a body or bodies representative of the employees to whom the agreement relates on the other hand;
|  | “enactment” has the same meaning as it has in the Interpretation Act 2005 ;
|  | “recognised trade union or staff association” means a body which is a holder of a negotiation licence under the Trade Union Act 1941 , or is an excepted body within the meaning of that Act which is sufficiently representative of the employees concerned;
|  | “sick leave scheme” means a scheme that provides for the payment of remuneration that an employee will be entitled to receive during a period of illness or injury according to the circumstances and subject to the conditions of the scheme under—
|  | (a) a contract of employment,
|  | (b) an enactment,
|  | (c) a collective agreement negotiated with a recognised trade union or staff association, or
|  | (d) any individual or other group arrangement.