Business acknowledges Government announcement on Statutory Sick Pay Scheme

Ibec, the organisation that represents Irish business, today acknowledged the announcement of details by the Tánaiste of the proposed Statutory Sick Pay Scheme.

Ibec Director of Employer Relations, Maeve McElwee said: “The phased introduction of Statutory Sick Pay, together with a service requirement for eligibility are important factors in the development of this new legislation. However, for many businesses the next 12 months will be a critical trading period and additional costs in 2021 will have a heavy impact for those still recovering from COVID-19 and Brexit impacts. This will also be a significant cost for businesses who have a sick pay scheme in place, eliminating as the Scheme proposes, waiting days and the incorporation of illness benefit in existing policies.”

Employers already have in the last five years had to absorb the costs of extended parents, parental and paternity as well as enhanced maternity leaves. The move to five paid sick days in 2023 is set to coincide with the introduction of pensions auto-enrolment which will present further significant costs for many employers. With gender pay gap reporting, the Directive on Work Life Balance to be introduced next year and legislation proposed legislation to give a right to request remote working, greater coordination of the labour market legislative agenda is urgently required. For businesses, particularly small and medium sized enterprises the sheer scale of recent and proposed employment regulation is actually driving down opportunities for employers to offer flexibility and significantly driving up costs.