Sick Leave and Sick Pay – Information for Employers & Employees

Introduction

In general, an employee has no right under employment law to be paid while on #sick leave. Consequently, it is at the discretion of the employer to decide their own policy on sick pay and sick leave, subject to the employee’s contract or terms of employment. Under Section 3 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, an employer must provide an employee with a written statement of terms of employment within two months of the commencement of the employment. One of the terms referred to in this Act on which the employer must provide information is the terms or conditions relating to incapacity for work due to sickness or injury.

You may apply for Illness Benefit if you have enough social insurance contributions. If you do not have enough social insurance contributions, you should contact the Department of Social Protection’s representative (formerly the Community Welfare Officer) at your local health centre who will assess your situation.

If you are entitled to sick pay, your employer will probably require you to sign over any Illness Benefit payment from the Department of Social Protection to your employer for as long as the sick pay continues.

Often, your contract of employment will place a maximum period of sick pay entitlement in a stated period, for example, one month’s sick pay in any 12-month period. Clear rules should be put in place by the employer where an employee is sick and is unavailable for work. For example, it should be clear that if you are sick and unavailable for work, you must contact a specified person by a certain time.

Medical certificates: Your employer can require you to provide a medical certificate (from your GP or family doctor) when you are on sick leave. For example, you may have to provide a medical certificate if you are out sick for more than 2 consecutive days. The medical certificate should state the date you are likely to return to work. If you are likely to be out sick for a longer period, your employer may require you provide weekly medical certificates. The Department of Social Protection has issued guidelines to assist GPs in certifying patients. These guidelines provide defined periods of expected recovery and return to work in respect of common medical conditions and surgical procedures.

In some circumstances, where an employee has consistently been absent from work (or if through illness is no longer capable of continuing work), employment may be terminated. Employees are protected in certain circumstances in this instance through the unfair dismissals legislation.

If you are unsure about whether or not you are entitled to sick pay, you should consult your contract of employment or speak to your employer.

An employee who does not receive sick pay as their terms of employment may make a complaint under the Payment of Wages Act using the online complaint form available on workplacerelations.ie.

Accident or injury at work

If you have an accident at work and you are not entitled to sick pay, you can apply for Injury Benefit. This is a weekly payment from the Department of Social Protection if you are unfit for work due to an accident at work or an occupational disease. Under the Medical Care Scheme you can claim certain medical costs that are not paid by the Health Service Executive (HSE) or covered by Treatment Benefit Scheme. You can find out more about these payments in our document on the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme.

If you are entitled to sick pay, your employer will probably require you to sign over any Injury Benefit payment from the Department of Social Protection to your employer for as long as the sick pay continues.

If you have suffered an injury at work, you can seek compensation from your employer by making a personal injury claim through InjuriesBoard.ie. You can read more about this in our document on health and safety in the workplace.

Sick leave during public holidays

If you are a full-time worker who is on sick leave during a public holiday, you are entitled to benefit for the public holiday you missed. If you are a part-time worker on sick leave during a public holiday, you would be entitled to time off work for the public holiday provided you worked for your employer at least 40 hours in the previous 5-week period.

However, you are not entitled to the public holiday if you are absent from work immediately before the public holiday and you have been off work for more than 26 weeks due to an ordinary illness or accident, or for more than 52 weeks due to an occupational accident.

Sick leave and annual leave

If you are ill during your #annual leave and have a medical certificate for the days you were ill, these sick days will not be counted as annual leave days. Instead, you can use these days as annual leave at a later date. An employer cannot require you to take annual leave for a certified period of illness.

Since 1 August 2015, you accumulate statutory annual leave entitlement during a period of certified sick leave. Employees on long-term sick leave can retain annual leave they could not take due to illness for up to 15 months after the end of the year in which it is accrued – see ‘Further information’ below.