Employees in Ireland are automatically entitled to paid sick leave - for the first time - from today.
Employers must now pay up to three days of sick leave a year to each staff member, paid at 70 per cent of their gross income and up to a cap of 110 euro a day.
It's on condition the worker has been employed there for at least 13 weeks, and has provided a doctor's cert.
Managing Director of The HR Suite, Caroline Reidy, explains what happens if your employer has an existing sick pay scheme:
"That forms part of the terms and conditions that employees will continue to enjoy. This is a new statutory entitlement that employees will get to complement what they have. Many sick pay schemes in Ireland have waiting days so you don't get sick pay until maybe the third, fourth or fifth day of absence. So effective now from the 1st January, people will have an automatic entitlement from the first day of absence".
