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ALL workers would be entitled to six weeks of paid sick leave under the proposals put forward by the Labor Party due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Art leader Alan Kelly called on the government to adopt the plan that he said would protect workers and society from “this deadly virus.”
The proposed legislation also gives parents the right to paid leave if their child is forced to stay home and not go to school due to Covid-19.
The National Public Health Emergencies Team (NPHET) previously recommended that steps should be put in place to ensure that workers are not deterred from taking sick days if they suspect they have Covid-19 due to fears that they would lose out financially.
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Labor Leader Alan Kelly (Brian Lawless / PA)
Kelly said the Labor bill addresses such concerns.
Under the legislation, workers would be entitled to six weeks of sick pay at the same rate as annual leave.
After six weeks they would go on to sickness benefit.
Employers would have to pay the first six days of sick pay in full for workers, but after that, the employer could claim any sickness benefits that would be due to the worker.
Labor and Labor Affairs spokeswoman Sen. Marie Sherlock said six weeks would be less than in other European countries such as France and the Netherlands, where workers are entitled to 250-day sick pay and in the UK, where it is a little less than 200 days.
Kelly said there have been clusters of Covid-19 cases among low-wage workers and pointed to the meat processing sector.
He added: “Workers should not feel like they need to go to a work environment if they have a symptom of the virus.”
He said he was asking the government to support the bill and sponsor it.
Kelly said it would be difficult to estimate the cost of the measures, as it “depends on their adoption.”
He said that the proposal would be a “social contract” between the state and businessmen and added: “Here we all have to unite.”
He referred to Ms Sherlock’s comments and said: “We are actually very behind from a European perspective on this.”
Labor hopes to introduce the bill in the Dáil before the end of the month.
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