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

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 6, to delete lines 11 and 12.

I will be reasonably brief on this series of amendments as we are eager to get to amendment No. 30. This is a series of amendments deleting various considerations on which the Minister is meant to base his decision as to whether he increases the number of days of sick leave. The considerations I am seeking to delete are the state of the economy, competitiveness, the state of economic sectors and employers and the views of employers, and I can tell the Minister in advance that they will not be in favour of increasing the number of sick pay days so he can take that into account right now. I am seeking to add the effects of inflation on the cost of living for employees, which is currently wildly out of control.

The point is that, for us, this is something that should be driven by workers' rights and public health consideration, not by the view of IBEC that it cannot possibly sustain paying workers sick pay or the view of "competitiveness", which is to a large degree a byword for keeping unit labour costs down, not having too many costs on employers and so forth. The same points apply in terms of the state of economic sectors and employers. We believe this should be an automatic process and we have tabled other amendments that seek to provide for that. However, to the extent that it is not an automatic process, the Government should consider things affecting the interests of ordinary people as opposed to those of business when it comes to making the consideration about increasing the number of sick pay days.

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