Sick pay: Is new scheme the right prescription for low-paid workers?

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has hailed the new sick pay legislation as 'part of the pandemic dividend' that will benefit the lowest-paid workers. But other say it doesn't go nearly far enough

To qualify for sick pay, employees will need to produce a sick cert from their GP, and they have to have been working for the company for at least six months. File picture: iStock

One of the things that always bothered Leo Varadkar when he was a practising GP was the number of patients who couldn’t afford to take a day off work.

They’d turn up at his surgery, ask for some medicinal cure-all and, despite him advising them to rest, they’d go straight back to work.