ICTU calls for mandatory sick pay for all workers

THE IRISH CONGRESS of Trade Unions has said that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed flaws in the way the country protects workers against loss of income and has called on the government to introduce mandatory sick pay for all workers.

Speaking ahead of the ICTU quick guide on sick pay tomorrow, Secretary General Patricia King said:

“It took a pandemic to expose major flaws in the way we protect workers against loss of income, one of the most glaring examples being the lack of a legal right to sick pay from an employer.

Ireland is completely out of line with European standards by not requiring employers to continue paying a worker’s salary if they are ill and unable to work for a period of time.

“In the club of high-income European countries, of which Ireland is a member, the guaranteed period of paid sick leave is not less than two weeks and is normally paid at 100% of the worker’s salary, with one exception ”.

Sick pay in Ireland is at the discretion of the employer for inclusion in an employment contract. Mandatory sick pay policies have been called for in recent months for certain sectors, such as the food processing industry, after large clusters of Covid-19 were identified.

King said that up to half the workforce, including hundreds of thousands of underpaid essential workers, do not receive sick pay and “face the financial obligation to continue working when they are sick.”

Tomorrow ICTU will publish its quick guide on sick pay and is reaching out to all Oireachtas members to ask them to legislate to guarantee all workers the right to sick pay.