Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My experience of the Labour Court is that it is very open to submissions from anyone affected by its decisions. I have never heard a criticism of the Labour Court's openness to submissions and points of view as regards any decision it is about to make that impacts on any worker or set of workers. I would be surprised to hear of any. There are structures within the trade union movement in terms of how sectors are represented. As such, the Deputy's concern might fall into that category.

I have heard the argument that some people want to be excluded entirely from the sick leave arrangement. However, if I had not done this, I would be facing questions from the Deputy as to why we did not have proper, standardised sick leave arrangements throughout the public service under which everyone understood what was allowed and in which there was proper oversight. That is what we will have once these regulations become effective at the end of March.

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