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BEREAVEMENT LEAVE COULD be legislated for and paid for out of the Social Insurance Fund, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has suggested.
Currently, employees may be able to take compassionate leave if a close member of their family dies, but it is not set down in law, can depend on your employment contract and is at the employer’s discretion.
Essentially, employers may give force majeure leave if a close family member has died, but employees are not entitled to it under law.
Varadkar has said it is something that the Government may look to address, stating:
“I think one of the things we could look at into the future is whether we could have a payment out of the Social Insurance Fund.
So the same way, if people are taking illness leave or maternity leave, they can get some money from the Social Insurance Fund, perhaps we could do something similar, and that wouldn’t impose a cost on employers, but at least would mean that employees wouldn’t lose a day’s pay or two days’ pay.
The Tánaiste acknowledged that in the vast majority of cases where a bereavement leave isn’t specified in somebody’s contract, employers are generally sensitive to the situation.
“If a close family member dies, they often give their employees a bit of time off and they don’t dock their wages. But that’s not a legal right,” he said.
However, the Tánaiste said his immediate focus is measures his department are currently pushing over the line before he rotates out of his ministerial position to becoming Taoiseach again.
He said these include the statutory sick pay for workers, the protection of tips legislation, the additional bank holiday next year, the increase in the minimum wage, and the moving towards a living wage.
“We just want to make sure we do that at a pace that’s not going to undermine business or employment,” he said.
Remote working legislation
The Tánaiste said the next thing thing on his agenda for the new Dáil term is legislation for the right to request remote working, which he hopes to get published, if not enacted, by Christmas.
The Government’s Right to Request Remote Working Bill was unveiled earlier this year; however, trade unions and opposition politicians heavily criticised the framework, saying it favours business owners over workers and gives employees little room to appeal a decision to refuse their request.
Varadkar told The Journal that his department has the report back from the all-party committee which reviewed the new law, saying:
“I anticipate I’ll be incorporating almost all the recommendations they’ve made. And that then allows us to press ahead with that law.”
When asked when he realistically expects it to be on the statute books, Varadkar said the length it might take to get through the Dáil and the Seanad is out of his control, but said he would like the bill published, ideally, before Halloween.
“If not for Halloween, by Christmas… whoever takes over my role will hopefully get it done by Easter,” he added.
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Did Leo buy a publicly package from the Journal or something? Every other day there’s another article about him. You would think that FG have been in opposition for the past 10 years with all the false promises he’s coming out with.
@John Smith: The journal is plaumausing Leo like mad now. He must be loving it.
@mark daly: He and his PR team must be paying for it! Desperate way to try to regain lost ground in the polls. His name associated with a few good news articles doesnt make up for the mess this country is in after 11 years of FG. There’ll be no fanfare when hes Taoiseach again
Will he row back on this one too, like the 30% income tax rate ?
@Mark Sheridan: But of course he will & we’ve already been Told by another cowboy politician that , that’s what they do in order to win votes ( They make FALSE promises) bunch of ……..
Just another carrot thrown at the electorate.But the majority of the electorate have been copping on to sir leo for quite a while now and just won’t buy it.
How do the self employed get this? Their tax rates, which are higher than anyone elses, help pay for the leave for those on PAYE. Perhaps the self employed should be looked after first and foremost in all these giveaways.
@Laura McCarthy: They more likely l pay for the thousands of self employed who work in cash and can be very economical with the truth when it comes to filing accounts .
@Liz O’Neill: That’s the tradesmen you are talking about I presume?
What’s your take on Mr Troy?
@G Row.: Whatever line of work you’re in you should pay your fair share of taxes.
@Liz O’Neill: You could be self employed if you want, you could avail of all those savings.
Leo needs to stop making promises that he can’t possibly fulfil before he rotates into the Taoiseach role. Sick Pay is a massive change and no employer nor govt dept is anywhere near in a ready state for that. Bereavement Leave is more fairytale talk. Make a bereavement leave provision in employment legislation for x days for immediate family members only paid for by the employer, similar to holiday pay legislation. Most employers pay for it anyway. Making self-employed pay for it also through PRSI makes no sense.
Bereavement is not and should not be covered under force majeure leave. As per the article it is under compassionate leave, of which is STILL unlegislated for. Why should it come from the social insurance fund? Would it not be better legislated like the new sick policy scheme?
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