Irish Workers to Receive 10 Paid Sick Days By 2025

What Will the New ‘Sick Leave Bill’ Mean for Employers & Employees? 

Leo Varadkar announced details of a new law giving all workers the right to paid sick leave at the beginning of the month - with government advocates hoping to have the bill enacted towards the end of 2021. 

The scheme is to be phased in over a four-year period, with three days per year in 2022, rising to five the following year, eventually arriving at 10 paid sick days per calendar year by 2025.  

According to the Department, the ‘phasing in’ is to aid the adjustment of independent and smaller businesses to a rising wage bill. 

The benefits to employees are clear to see - Subject to the aforementioned phasing through to 2025, employees will receive 70% of their salary (capped at €110 per day), from their employer to cover their sick leave.  

Proponents of the scheme argue that in most European nations, employers are required, by law, to make provisions for employee sick leave. In Ireland, employers offer the same voluntarily or under a collective trade agreement for example. Currently, employers decide sick leave policy at their own discretion - but they must provide their employees with a written sick leave policy.  

While the knee-jerk reaction of many employers may be of dissatisfaction towards the proposed bill, there are, in fact, several benefits to be realised from an employer’s perspective. 

Reducing Presenteeism: 

Presenteeism is a situation wherein an employee who is unwell continues to work while ill, potentially passing on their illness to their colleagues or making their illness worse. The same can also be said for an employee's mental health. Refusing to take a break or mental health day, another form of presenteeism - can lead to severe depression, anxiety and irritability to name but a few impacts.  

If you think presenteeism isn’t an issue in your workplace, you may need to reevaluate your assessment as a 2018 CIPD report found that presenteeism at work has more than tripled since 2010. By removing the pressure of losing out on a day’s pay, the bill will help to proactively reduce presenteeism by cutting off the problem before it worsens, allowing employees to get over their illness fully. 

Management Control Over Absenteeism: 

The bill will introduce standardised laws and procedures for handling absenteeism across all sectors. By doing so, employers will finally have a framework to use to ensure their employees are receiving adequate care and compensation. 

Reduced Employee Turnover: 

Standardised laws and procedures also translate into a lack of differentiation between competing companies in recruiting. Businesses will be less likely to suffer employee turnover – whether stemming from losing out to a competitor with better sick leave benefits or simply through a poorly managed internal sick leave policy. 

Reduced Spread of Infectious Diseases: 

The past 16 months have taught most of us more than we ever cared to know about virus transmission – and while brushing Covid off like a bad dream sounds deeply satisfying, it’s something we’ll never forget. We simply need to learn from what’s happened and take better measures to better protect ourselves from spreading disease, which in essence, is what this bill is all about. 

At the end of the day, we believe this bill to show a lot of promise in terms of employee healthcare and we do believe this is a beneficial bill, at least in terms of the intent behind this mandate. However, there are many questions left unanswered in addition to opponents pointing out that this bill has been introduced at possibly the most challenging time for employers in recent years, with the government expecting the average wage bill to rise by 2.5%. 

The issue has also been raised that this scheme only covers those who have been with their employer for more than 6 months. In addition, the bill, while introducing minimum, enforceable standards, won’t cap sick leave at the mandated level. It will remain up to an employer's discretion if they would like to compensate the employee further which may still leave employers exposed to pressure from trade unions. It’s difficult to know the exact shape the bill will take in 6 months' time - as always though, the devil will be in the details.