14th April 2025 |
Reports, Research and Analysis
This study seeks to assess the impact and ongoing effectiveness of the Sick Leave Act 2022 since its introduction on 1 January 2023.
The Sick Leave Act 2022 came into force on 1 January 2023, introducing a statutory entitlement to employer-funded sick pay for the first time in Ireland. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that many workers, particularly those in low paid, precarious roles – including frontline staff offering essential service provision – could not afford to miss a day of work, even when unwell.
This study seeks to assess the impact and ongoing effectiveness of the Sick Leave Act 2022 since its introduction and model for the estimated impact of potential further entitlement increases to 7 and 10 days. Although the scheme has generally been recognised as a public good, concerns have been raised by employers on the cumulative cost of regulatory developments – and/or broader changes to working conditions – for Ireland’s enterprise sector. This study also seeks to verify whether the introduction of statutory sick leave has had an asymmetric impact on different types of businesses (sector, company size, and so on), which has the potential to inform targeted support measures, if necessary.
The assessment aims to capture, systemise and analyse new and existing data on illness absences and the availability of sick leave schemes to create an accurate landscape of sick leave in Ireland, stratified by sector and share of employees. It aims to address data and informational gaps identified by the 2021 Regulatory Impact Analysis, including the absence of granular data on the distribution of sick pay schemes already in place and lack of data concerning the incidence rate of illness in Ireland, which negatively affected the ability to make accurate assumptions to underpin a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis before the introduction of the scheme.
Topics:
Workplace and Skills