Ms Maeve McElwee:

I wholeheartedly agree with the Deputy that sick pay schemes are a benefit and an attractive feature in many organisations. I would also say that there can be increased productivity where there is good management of those schemes and where there are good relationships, but I would also tell the Deputy that the bread and butter of the IBEC executive's role is often dealing with the day-to-day issues that arise around absence and absence management. Without a doubt we regularly have issues and concerns that arise around ongoing sporadic absences. They may be around managing issues where perhaps somebody has an underlying concern but often they can be linked to other issues. It is an ongoing matter for employers to deal with. It is important that they deal with it fairly and have a process for dealing with it but there is no doubt these are the daily questions that come through around managing that sporadic absence. Questions arise on how to implement the company's sick pay scheme if people are not providing medical certificates, if employees are always missing on a Monday or if somebody is routinely gone after a bank holiday weekend? HR departments are occupied with such issues on an ongoing basis and that is one reason we say it is so important that there is governance, because the management of those schemes appropriately and fairly within a process is what makes them work. It is what makes them attractive and makes other employees feel that everybody is being treated the same way. Everybody knows when somebody is abusing a sick pay scheme. When employers do not deal with it it becomes a really significant industrial relations problem. That is why schemes can be seen as a benefit. Where they are well managed they address those issues. Where people are not operating in good faith they can be managed within the provision of the scheme.