THE RATE OF pay victims of domestic violence will receive under a new scheme should be known by the end of the summer or by the new Dáil term in September, according to Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman.
The Work-Life Balance legislation to introduce paid leave for victims of domestic violence and give employees the right to request remote working was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas yesterday evening.
The new law will also give parents and carers the right to request flexible work, and introduces five days of caring leave for parents and carers who need to support a person or child with serious medical care.
It will also extend breastfeeding breaks from six months to two years after the birth of a child.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, O’Gorman said the legislation passed yesterday does not set what the rate of leave pay will be.
It sets out a process for how that rate will be established, he said, stating that organisations raised concerns about the criteria that was originally set out.
“Being honest, they [the criteria] were very much modelled on the criteria for determining the rate of sick pay. On hearing that, we have made changes. We have taken out some of those very high-level references to the macro-economic situation,” said the minister.
Instead, “expert opinion” will be sought to recognise the importance of hearing the voices and views of those who are most attuned to this area, said O’Gorman.
“There is a process that will kick off once this legislation is passed and signed. We have made these changes deliberately on hearing the concerns that were raised. I think that is probably as far as I can go in providing reassurance,” he said.
Labour’s Sean Sherlock said that while he welcomed the issue was being devolved to expert opinion, he felt the minister was “being a bit cagey” about the timeline of the process, asking when it might be made public what the actual rate of pay might be.
“I do not feel I am being cagey at all. There is a number of important rights that have to be initiated through this legislation,” he said.
O’Gorman said he hoped that by the end of the summer he will have a clear indication of the rate of pay victims of domestic violence will be entitled to.
“We will be looking by end of summer or perhaps the start of the Dáil term that the leave will be available. That is the goal I am working towards,” he said.
A significant amount of work in terms of the right to request remote working has to be completed, work on flexible working and caring leave also has to be worked on, he said.
Much of the rights in the work-life balance legislation will be staggered, but some provisions can be brought in early such as the breast-feeding breaks and the five days’ caring leave, said the minister.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns raised concerns about the paid leave only being in place for five days, stating that it should be ten days paid leave.
Sinn Féin’s Kathleen Funchion raised concerns about women being monitored in certain relationships.
“One of the concerns I have with the rate of pay not being the same as the woman’s wage pay. If she is being monitored and that person is logging into her online banking or seeing her payslips – we all know that should not be happening, but that is the reality, especially in coercive control – and the person is seeing a difference in pay, it may spark some negative and unwanted attention when one is trying to get out of the situation,” she said.
She added: “I do not think we should be comparing it to sick pay or leave. It is very different and it should be the same rate of pay one is getting in one’s job.”
O’Gorman said introducing five days of paid leave for victims of domestic violence will make Ireland one of the first countries in Europe to introduce this right.
He said the legislation passed last night enacts pieces of the EU work-life balance directive and brings Ireland close to the full transposition of that directive. It also introduces key policy proposals that were agreed in the programme for Government negotiations, he added.
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