Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

My amendment does the same thing by means of a slightly different mechanism. This is an important issue. Workers should be entitled to sick pay from the moment they start work. The consequence of the requirement for 13 continuous weeks is the exclusion of many vulnerable workers. It will discriminate and disproportionately affect women, to a significant degree. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, has written to the Tánaiste pointing out that it: "will leave hundreds of thousands of mostly women and foreign-born essential workers employed in low-pay jobs, who routinely have their service broken by their employer, without coverage for three months each year." That happens all the time in childcare, for example, where workers, 98% of whom are female, are let go over the summer period and rehired in September. It will also massively and disproportionately affect young workers, more than a third of whom are on temporary contracts and will not be covered for the first 13 weeks. The basic point is that you are not any less likely to get sick when you are on a temporary contract or in an industry where you are laid off over the summer because your employer breaks your service. It is not your fault and there is no reason you should not be entitled to 100% sick pay from day one at work.