Statutory Sick Pay – SSP
Statutory Sick Pay
The scheme is coming into effect from 1 January 2023.
Under the legislation, employers will be obliged to provide a minimum number of paid sick days annually from 2023. Statutory sick pay is money paid by employers to employees who are ill and unable to work. The new legislation gives employees the right to a minimum period of paid leave if they become sick or sustain an injury that makes them unfit for work.
From 1 January 2023, workers will have a right to:
- Paid sick leave for up to 3 sick days per year. This will increase to 5 days in 2024, 7 days in 2025 and 10 days in 2026
- A rate of payment for Statutory Sick leave of 70% of normal wages to be paid be employer (up to a maximum €110 per day)
- Take a complaint to the WRC where they are not provided with a company sick pay scheme
From 1 January 2023, workers will have a right to PAID SICK leave for up to 3 sick days per year. This will increase to 5 days in 2024, 7 days in 2025 and 10 days in 2026.
Who Can Claim SSP?
To be eligible to claim SSP, employees must meet key criteria:
- They must have been employed by the business for a minimum of 13 weeks of continuous service
- They must provide a GP certificate, confirming they are unfit for work and indicating their expected return date
- The leave must be in relation to a day or days when an employee would ordinarily work but is incapable of working due to illness or injury
- The leave can be taken on consecutive days or non-consecutive days
Both full and part-time employees can avail of paid leave under the scheme, which will be rolled out in four phases.
They’ll be entitled to a rate of 70% of usual daily earnings up to €110 a day for three days.
The scheme provide increased protections for employees. an employee who is on statutory sick leave is required to be treated as if they have not been absent. Any time spent on statutory sick leave should not affect any rights in relation to the employee’s employment. The scheme also protects an employee against being penalised for exercising or proposing to exercise their statutory sick leave entitlement.
This means that there will be an obligation on employers to ensure that employees are not being treated differently for taking statutory leave.
The eventual 10 days, or two working weeks, of sick pay per year will be in addition to other leave entitlements including annual leave, parental and maternity leaves as well as public holidays.
How Will It Affect Employers?
If your business doesn’t already have a sick leave scheme in place, the new legislation will impose costs on your operation.
Additional indirect cost may include administrative costs in relation to setting up and implementing the scheme and maintaining records for each employee.
As an employer, you must keep proper records for each employee. The records must be maintained for four years and include information in relation to each employee who availed of sick leave.
The following information must be included in the records:
- The employee’s period of employment
- The dates of statutory sick leave in respect of each employee
- The rate of statutory sick leave payment in relation to each employee
An employer who fails to maintain accurate records may be convicted and subject to a fine of up to €2,500.
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What Employers Need To Do
If you already provide for paid sick leave through your employment contract or through collective sector or union agreements, you’ll need to review the contracts in light of the upcoming legislation.
The Sick Leave Act states that if an existing provision for paid sick leave in an employment contract is a favourable or more favourable than the statutory provision, then the employer’s obligation under the legislation is met.
The Sick Leave Act states that if an existing provision for paid sick leave in an employment contract is as favourable or more favourable than the statutory provision, then the employer’s obligation under the legislation is met.
The Act further states any such provision shall be a “substitution for, and not in addition to” the entitlement.
However, if a provision for sick leave in your standard employment contract is less favourable than the entitlement provided under the legislation, it will be “deemed to be so modified so as to be not less favourable”.
In summary, an employer who provides a sick leave scheme to employees more favourable than the terms of the statutory scheme will not have additional obligation under the Act.
In summary, an employer who provides a sick leave scheme to employees more favourable than the terms of the statutory scheme will not have additional obligation under the Act.
The Sick Leave Act sets out the criteria for employers to determine whether their existing sick pay scheme is more favourable than the proposed statutory provisions provided in the Act:
- The period of service of an employee required before sick leave is payable
- The number of days an employee is absent before sick leave is payable
- The period for which sick leave is payable
- The amount of sick leave that is payable
- The reference period of the sick leave scheme
Once the enitlement to statutory sick pay from the employer ends, employees who haven’t recovered and are still unfit to return to work may qualify for ILNESS BENEFIT from DSP.
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