People Before Profit has moved a bill to provide a sick pay scheme for migrant workers in the meat, dairy and horticulture sectors.

The bill – Employment Permits (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 – aims to provide an employer-paid sick scheme for workers employed on general employment permits in the sectors outlined above.

Additionally, according to People Before Profit, it addresses “a number of other issues related to foreign nationals working in the state under general employment permits”.

“These include granting greater rights in certain situations to change employer within the first year here; providing for the right to access the Workplace Relations Commission in some circumstances where the person involved may not have a valid work permit; and ensuring awards granted to persons without a valid permit are recoverable in the event of a insolvency and to provide for related matters.”

‘Walk the walk’ and ‘talk the talk’

Speaking on the bill, deputy Paul Murphy said: “The Taoiseach told the Dáil that the meat plant issue has been ‘dealt’ with.

“He should tell that to the meat factory workers in the plants which have current outbreaks.

For almost a year now, NPHET, the unions and People Before Profit have called for the implementation of proper sick pay, yet 90% of workers still don’t have access to it.

“This bill would finally begin to address this.”

Bríd Smith TD added: “Workers in the meat processing, dairy and horticulture sectors who are employed under general employment work permits need a sick pay scheme, so they do not have to go to work when they are sick.

“The issue of a sick pay scheme is essential to drive down Covid outbreaks in these sectors.”

The bill has been welcomed by unions and rights groups. SIPTU’s manufacturing division organiser Greg Ennis said this bill is a “significant step in the support of achieving decent terms and conditions that these essential workers in the low-paid Irish food processing industry deserve”.

“While many trumpet the essentiality of these workers, they must now walk the walk as well as talk the talk,” Ennis added.

Employment permit legislation ‘is very complex’

When introducing the bill, deputy Bríd Smith said that employment permit legislation is “very complex, difficult and labyrinthine, deliberately so”.

“Getting a permit, renewing a permit and surviving here is not made easy by the state or by many employers who are willing to use the labour of migrant workers but are unwilling to pay them decent wages or provide them with decent conditions,” the deputy claimed.

“The entire area needs root and branch reform and workers must be at the forefront in that regard. I hope to see them organised in great numbers in trade unions in the coming years and joining with Irish workers in demanding workers’ rights and decent livelihoods.”

Labour Party sick pay bill

Last September, the Labour Party brought forward a bill for statutory paid sick leave. The government voted to delay the bill for six months.

“We need workers to self-isolate if they are ill, and we must ensure that no worker is left out of pocket for doing the right thing,” Labour Senator Marie Sherlock said.

This is a crucial question of worker’s rights, but it is also the essential missing piece in our strategy against Covid-19.

“Sick pay is not a luxury. Across the EU, 22 countries already have a statutory right to sick pay, as does the UK. Ireland is one of only five EU members that doesn’t recognise this essential right. “