Ms Maeve McElwee:

Regarding the reason why we are out of line with Europe, I know the issue of statutory sick pay has been reviewed over many years. This is not the first time it has come up for broader consideration. I presume that as with any of these issues around employment rights and terms and conditions that apply, all of these things get looked at. They look at the principle around our social protection system, the fact that illness benefit was always paid by the State and the fact that there are other provisions to support employees that may not necessarily be in place in other states. There are probably a very significant number of factors that give rise to that.

The Senator’s point about certification on day one is of considerable concern to us as well. Like the Senator, we recognise the challenge for people getting access on day one to certification in a non-emergency situation. Nevertheless what is really important to recognise here, particularly when we are overlaying a statutory sick pay scheme on existing company pay schemes is that most company sick pay schemes do require certification after the waiting days, which are typically three. They always require that certification to be produced on day three and do not accept backdated certificates because technically, it is very difficult for a GP to know how sick someone was three days ago so that certification always comes on day one.

It was recognised in a number of the initial consultation papers we received that management of sick pay also helps to manage absence and it was introduced as a positive consideration about the introduction of statutory sick pay, in that it would assist employers in managing absence. However, there are no provisions in this Bill to assist employers in managing absence and address concerns employers may have around the veracity of sick leave taken, how it is taken or whether there is an abuse of sick leave that is ongoing. Other pieces of protective legislation recognise that these situations do arise – not all of the time but they do arise and they do need to be managed and addressed. This is probably the only piece of management support within this legislation as it currently stands and I know employers would be very concerned to see it removed, albeit we do recognise the challenge around a medical practice being able to issue a certificate on the same day.