Sick leave proposals rejected by unions

PUBLIC SERVICE trade unions have rejected proposals by the Government to effectively reduce by half existing sick leave arrangements for staff.

Under the proposals, which were tabled at a meeting at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday, staff who are absent from work on foot of a doctor’s certificate would receive a maximum of three months on full pay and three further months on half pay.

Management also sought to reduce maximum uncertified sick leave from seven to three days in a year.

Staff in the public service can currently receive full pay for certified sickness absence for up to six months in one year, and half pay thereafter, subject to a maximum of 12 months of paid sick leave in any period of four years

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin declined to comment on the proposals yesterday. However, in recent weeks he has described the State’s current €500 million bill for sick leave as “unsustainable”.

Following the rejection of the proposals by trade unions yesterday, the Labour Relations Commission is expected to convene further talks on the issue in the near future.

Unions said yesterday they did not accept the management proposals and had made clear that their priority was to protect sick pay for staff with serious long-term illnesses, and to maintain a facility for uncertified short-term sick leave.

Chairman of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Shay Cody said the blanket reduction in sick leave arrangements proposed by management would do little to address any abuse of the system.

However, he said it would have “a disastrous effect on those who suffered catastrophic and life-threatening illnesses, regardless of their previous sick leave record”.

He said comparisons between sick leave levels in the public and private sectors were not always reliable and argued that management already had the tools to deal with any abuse that may exist.

The unions maintained that the most recent figures produced by the Comptroller and Auditor General showed that 40 per cent of civil servants took no sick leave at all, and that the average amount of uncertified sick leave taken by each employee was well below two days in a year.

Mr Cody said: “The assertion that sick leave arrangements are treated by staff as additional holiday entitlement is well wide of the mark and management put forward no evidence to support it.

“The evidence that does exist, from the Comptroller and Auditor General, shows that most public servants take very little of the uncertified sick leave allowed, and most sick leave incidence has been certified as necessary by a doctor.”

Speaking last weekend, after The Irish Times reported on details of the Government’s plans, Eoin Ronayne, general secretary of the CPSU, the union representing lower-paid civil servants, said the proposals would present “significant difficulties”.