Bríd Smith to bring forward bill ‘all about sick pay schemes being forced on meat plants’

Deputy Bríd Smith will bring forward a bill “all about sick pay schemes being forced on meat plants and those who use agency workers”.

In a debate on the final report of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, which was published last month, the deputy spoke of the need to implement a mandatory sick pay scheme.

In this final report, a number of recommendations were referred to both the Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine and the Joint Committee on Health.

Speaking at the debate recently, deputy Smith said that the systemic weaknesses in the provision of all our public services were highlighted by the pandemic.

“All of these systemic weaknesses had been in the system for years but it took a pandemic to highlight them,” the Solidarity – People before Profit TD said.

“That is part of what we are seeing here, particularly when it comes to workers’ rights. We [committee] did a lot of work around the professions in the care of the elderly and in the hospitals, including nurses, care workers, cleaners and so on, but also in the meat plants.

We had people forcing themselves to go into work because they had no sick pay to rely on, knowing that they were either symptomatic or not feeling well or that infection was in the workplace, when they should be isolating.

“Many of them, because of the low-pay regime and the lack of provision for workers’ rights, were living in overcrowded, congregated settings where they were sharing homes with many people.

“This is especially true of the meat plant industry, and one of the recommendations we have made here is a study of that industry to see at what level it operates, how it exploits workers and the need to implement a mandatory sick pay scheme.”

Bill to be brought forward ‘in next week or 2’

The deputy said that people have “complimented” Tánaiste Leo Varadkar for “putting out to public consultation how we do a sick pay scheme”.

“I do not think that is good enough,” the deputy said.

We need to have a mandatory sick pay scheme for companies who are making vast profits and agencies who engage nurses and care workers and are making vast profits, and we need to do it sooner rather than later, as we are facing into a further spike in this pandemic.

“For that reason, I will bring a bill to the House in the next week or two which will be all about mandatory sick pay schemes being forced on meat plants and those who use agency workers, particularly migrant agency workers, who have no provision to access a sick pay scheme or cannot move employer.”

A number of members of the committee reiterated the need for an adequate sick pay provision to be introduced, with deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan saying that while the meat industry is highly regulated in terms of food safety and hygiene, meat factories have highlighted that the “same level of regulation and protection does not extend to workers or their conditions of employment”.

Labour bill pushed 6 months down the line

In September, the Labour Party brought forward the Sick Leave and Parental Leave (Covid-19) Bill 2020; to bring an entitlement for employees to paid leave during periods of illness or injury.

The bill, which would see meat plant workers have legal entitlement to sick pay, was defeated by the government and “kicked into six month review”, as said by Labour Party TD Duncan Smith.

The deputy added: “If they think we’re going to stop campaigning for this, they are sorely mistaken.”

Despite the knock to the progress of the bill, which saw 82 vote in favour of delaying it by six months compared to 61, Alan Kelly, leader of the Labour Party, says there is “huge public support for sick pay” which shows the “need for government action now”.