SEANAD REPORT:FINE GAEL Senator Fidelma Healy Eames (FG) said she believed the time had come to require employees to bear the financial burden of sick leave.

Ms Healy Eames was responding to the proposal put forward by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton that employers pay the first four weeks of employees’ sick leave. Ms Healy Eames said the burden should not fall on employers or the State.

Ms Burton told the Seanad that requiring employers in the private and public sectors to contribute to the cost of sick pay would encourage them to manage their absenteeism rates. The cost to the State of paying illness benefit had risen from €330 million to €900 million over the last decade. “At any given time there are 80,000 people on illness benefit. That is 20 million working days lost for which the Department of Social Protection is paying.”

Having employers finance sick pay for their employees for up to four weeks would still leave them in a very favourable position compared with their counterparts in competitor countries such as the UK and the Netherlands, she said.

Even though the State does not oblige employers to pay a contribution to sick pay costs, we still have one of the lowest average rates of employer PRSI as measured by the OECD. The result was the social insurance fund here ran a deficit of €2.5 billion last year. This could not go unaddressed, she said.

The choice was to increase PRSI rates, cut benefits or change the payment model in a manner that asked employers to share the cost while also giving them control over the management of the cost. She thought those managing employment would recognise the need to address issues where employees were seen by their co-workers to be utilising sick days above what was regarded as the norm.

Marie Moloney (Lab) said if the sick pay change was made in the public service, taxpayers would pay. She did not see how the plan would reduce absenteeism.