Results 1-20 of 20 for at segment:8268712

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I move amendment No. 30: In page 11, line 22, to delete “20 weeks’” and substitute “4 weeks’”. These amendments amend the maximum penalty the Workplace Relations Commission or Labour Court may award if an employer breaches obligations under the Bill. That now moves from 20 weeks' remuneration to four weeks' remuneration. This will bring the...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Paul Murphy: I move amendment No. 21: In page 7, line 4, after “day” to insert “equivalent to one hundred per cent of an employee’s pay”. This group of amendments deals with the rate of sick pay. All our amendments are effectively trying to get sick pay of 100%. The level of sick pay proposed by the Government is low, let us be honest. It allows for 70% of pay at...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Louise O'Reilly: I have similar amendments. I agree with what an Teachta Paul Murphy has said. I want to include a reference to the need to have a GP certificate because it is a fact in this State, and I am not comparing us to every other country, that we do not have universal, free at the point of delivery access to GP care. It is not true to say the majority of low-paid workers have access to it. In...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputies. I know some stakeholders believe the rate of payment and an earnings cap should be set in the Bill itself. I do not agree with that. Setting the rates by ministerial order allows for greater flexibility and will allow the rate to be revised as necessary in line with inflation, changing incomes and, indeed, changing politics. For example, the national minimum wage is...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Paul Murphy: ...by future Ministers from three upwards, as opposed to the prospect of future Governments actually being able to reduce the number of days down to a floor of three. If we are going to say to workers we are introducing it at three days, which we think is very minimal, and it will go up to ten and then, it is hoped, up from there, the idea that included in the legislation is the possibility...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Louise O'Reilly: I agree. It makes me a bit nervy, given that previous Governments have reduced sick pay entitlements for civil and public servants. I am not going to get into it, but that was done and there were all the reasons in the world given for it. I think it was Deputy Howlin at the time who said it would improve productivity, but it did not. I am concerned, given there is form on this, that it...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Louise O'Reilly: I welcome that and the clarification. The Minister is going to double-check it and that is fair enough. With regard to the service requirement for parental leave, parental leave is something that is planned. One does not wake up and suddenly find oneself with a child and eligibility for parental leave, or at least I hope not. Sick leave is different because it happens suddenly. The two...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am sympathetic to the point the Deputies are making. Deputy Bruton from my party spoke in favour of this change earlier as well. In particular, when we are saying that it has to be certified, there is an argument for saying that the right should kick in at an earlier stage. At the same time, I am sensitive to the fact that there are employers who take people on seasonally, perhaps for...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Louise O'Reilly: I have tabled a similar amendment regarding what should be considered. Of course, it is open to the Minister to consider a rake of things that may not be in the legislation, but we want to include "the state of society generally, the public interest and employee well-being” in what should be considered. On the inclusion of "employee" well-being, it is not a word I like. I prefer the...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Paul Murphy: I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The issue here is that a very gross discrimination was created by the Government's proposal, whereby an employee whose service was interrupted would go back to zero, lose his or her rights to sick pay and have to work up the 13 weeks again. This meant that the Bill, as drafted, excluded many of the most vulnerable...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Louise O'Reilly: My amendment No. 5 is similar to amendment No. 4. I appreciate that the Government's amendment No. 7 is an effort to address our concerns on this issue, which the Tánaiste indicated previously that he would consider. What he has proposed is an advance and it certainly is welcome. It captures the situation of childcare workers, who adhere to a fixed pattern of work that includes a...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: On Committee Stage, the Minister of State, Deputy English, signalled our intention to move an amendment on Report Stage to address the issues raised by the Deputies. The purpose of the amendment is to eliminate uncertainty as to the entitlement of certain workers to sick leave. Section 5 is linked to the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973. This means that an employee will not...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The argument I am making, which I often make, is one in favour of incremental progress. I appreciate that for many people progress is too slow, but I have a responsibility as Minister to listen to all sides of the argument and to look at it from the point of view of employers as well as that of employees. In my view, the most important workers' right is the right to work, and I want to...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Paul Murphy: The Tánaiste's arguments in favour of sick pay and why it is good are all arguments for allowing workers to have sick pay for the days they are sick. That is the bottom line. They are also arguments in favour of amendment No. 18 which proposes to decrease the limits on the actual number of days. If we were lucky enough to have a left Government - hopefully one with an eco-socialist...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I will repeat what we said on Committee Stage. Whenever an improvement to the lot of the worker is proposed, the Government always seems to speak of Armageddon and about how difficult it will be for employers and how businesses will fold, etc. Whenever we propose issues such as a basic rate of pay, a living wage or anything in this area we are always told it will place an unreasonable...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Matt Shanahan: Like many others, the Tánaiste included, I welcome the introduction of a statutory sick pay scheme. As I stated in committee, however, there is an issue of discernment here in terms of the scale and size of the employers. What some of the amendments are speaking to, in seeking ten days of immediate sick leave, is wholly inappropriate for microenterprises. That needs to be said first...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Louise O'Reilly: ...of public health. For employers who may struggle to pay even the modest amount of sick leave provided for in the Bill, which will increase further as time goes on, there is a benefit to them that I do not believe we are considering. When a sick person comes into the workplace and makes other people in the workplace sick, it creates a bigger problem. We should come at this from the...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Paul Murphy: I move amendment No. 2: In page 5, to delete lines 23 to 25. We welcome that we are here tonight to introduce a right to statutory sick leave, which is positive. It is a shame that it took a global pandemic to get Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil there, but here we are. This amendment aims to make sick leave a real and substantial reality for workers from the word go, as opposed to the...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I will speak to my amendments. We debated this over and back with the Minister of State, Deputy English, on Committee Stage. He said that he would go back and reflect on some of the measures. This element of the Bill is a non-starter for us. We introduced our own sick pay legislation through Private Member's business two years ago. As Deputy Murphy quite rightly said, the pandemic now...

Sick Leave Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (18 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputies for their contributions. I have been very clear on the medium-term plan, which is to make sure that employers know what their obligations will be and that employees know what their rights are. The statutory entitlement to sick pay will be phased in as part of a four-year plan. The initial entitlement would be to three paid sick leave days per year once the Bill is enacted...