ISME: Burton must drop 'absurd' mandatory sick pay

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, has called on Minister Joan Burton to drop her "absurd" proposal to transfer responsibility for paying sick pay in the first month of illness from the Department of Social Protection to individual employers.

ISME said that the proposed move demonstrates "a bookkeeping rather than economic approach, a profound ignorance of human nature and a lack of understanding of the SME sector".

ISME Chief Executive Mark Fielding said: "It is mind boggling in the extreme that the Minister is still leading this one woman crusade to crucify the already struggling SME sector by threatening to introduce mandatory sick pay of up to four weeks. Someone needs to have a serious word in her ear and remind her that this measure will increase employers’ costs and have a detrimental impact on employment.

"The schizophrenic tendency of the Government is extremely worrying with job creation being drum-rolled as a priority on the one hand and this outlandish job-killing proposal on the other.

"Common sense, or any sense at all, needs to be applied and this ludicrous proposal needs to be dumped once and for all."