The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has issued a response to the Institute’s letter to Government on 12 November regarding thetimeline for introducing statutory sick pay. In our letter we called on the Government to examine its ambitious timeline for the scheme’s introduction, and to engage with service providers, advisors, employers, and representative bodies to ensure that the logistics of the system are fully tested before the scheme becomes mandatory.
In its response this week, the Department referred to its process of pre-legislative scrutiny, its plans to seek Government approval for presentation of the Bill to the House of the Oireachtas, and the establishment of rates of pay and calculation by Statutory Instrument. It stated that once the legislation is finalised, an information campaign will be undertaken to ‘clarify aspects of the scheme in advance of its introduction’.
We will continue to seek an appropriate timeline for the introduction of such a scheme to ensure that employers are given sufficient time to prepare and that detailed guidance is issues as soon as possible.
You can find the Institute’s representations to the Government on public policy issues here.