Sick Pay Plan Approved by Oireachtas Committee

About HR Desk

About Us

Having great HR in the workplace is essential to help your business grow, and when HR issues do arise you need to take action to resolve them quickly and effectively. This is where Cyril Keegan from HR Desk comes in.

Cyril, a HR and Health & Safety Professional with 22 years’ experience provides businesses with the expert support they need to resolve issues and make sure that they’re getting the most out of their people. Owners and managers of SMEs often don’t have the time or resources to spend on issues that distract them from growing their business, the practical straightforward advice they get from HR Desk is therefore something they can really act upon.

Our Services are affordable and come at a fraction of the price of having a dedicated and costly in-house HR Department within your organisation. We are here to support you through whatever HR issues that you face and through our expert advice, in-depth consultations, custom business audits, bespoke in-person training and fully online, CPD approved courses.

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Client Testimonials

Wilton Waste Recycling worked very closely with HR Desk and Cyril Keegan during a twelve month period where they served as Health & Safety Consultants. The company offers high quality service and we can say we have always been satisfied with their assistance in both HR and health & Safety advice. We were highly impressed by the knowledge HR Desk brought to our business which were both practical and implementable.

Marcel Haynes, Wilton Recycling

I can highly recommend Cyril for the service he has provided. His comprehensive work assisted us in getting Health and Safety approval on the largest cleaning job we have ever undertaken. As a HSE project for Cavan General Hospital it was high profile and therefore it attracted a great deal of attention. Cyrils document was so comprehensive it was accepted without amendment by the HSE and we went on to complete the job successfully.

Emmet Fidgeon, ACE Cleaning

Dealing with HR issues on a day to day basis is very time consuming and if not handled correctly could be very expensive. We felt we needed the help and knowledge HR Desk provided. Cyril is an experienced HR professional who brings a sense of integrity and professionalism when dealing with the HR aspects of our business. I would highly recommend his services.

Ruth King, Silo Clean

The feedback from the candidates on the courses that Cyril provided was extremely positive and has resulted in improved company performance in many areas. Cyril has provided this company with an excellent service and our investment in training has certainly paid off. I therefore highly recommend Cyril for HR training for any company who wishes to see an improvement in their companies performance from a HR perspective.

Darragh Eliott, Elliott Building & Civil Engineering

The company has received very positive feedback from the training sessions and a number of individuals have commented on Cyril's delivery style as very personable and effective. Further to this Cyril's knowledge of the area of HR is exceptional and his experience really adds to the training sessions he delivers. We are extremely happy with the training Cyril has delivered and expect to avail of more training in HR related areas in the future.

Stephen Lyons, GEM Group

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Online Training Courses

A wide range of staff training and development courses are available from HR Desk, including but not limited to, the following topics. Working From Home (Lone Working) Managing Conflict, HR Strategy Management, Effective Team Management, Disciplinary and Grievance, Appraisal Training for Appraisers, Dealing With Workplace Bullying, Conflict Resolution, Communicating with Employees, Conducting an Investigation, Harassment, Induction, Interviewing, Misconduct Presentation and many more.

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A Government plan to give all workers the right to paid sick leave has been approved by the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment has recommended that all employees be entitled to statutory sick pay, regardless of their length of employment with a particular employer where an employer can request medical certification.

The Committee published its pre-legislative scrutiny report of the General Scheme of the Sick Pay Bill on Wednesday. Click link below to open the report.

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/33/joint_committee_on_enterprise_trade_and_employment/reports/2022/2022-02-09_report-on-the-pre-legislative-scrutiny-of-the-general-scheme-of-the-sick-leave-bill-2021_en.pdf

The proposed Bill will provide for a minimum level of protection to low paid employees. It will create an entirely new right to sick pay, and this will be legally enforceable through the Workplace Relations Commission and the Courts. The Bill aims to increase the social protections and rights for workers while retaining the policy focus of supporting the smaller business who may find this legislation challenging and costly to implement.

The report makes the following recommendations:

The Committee recommends all employees therefore be entitled to the right of statutory sick pay to ensure workers employed on all forms of employment contracts receive the same protections under the terms of this new Bill.
Statutory sick pay will be phased-in over a four-year period, starting with three days per year in 2022. By way of Regulation, this will rise to five days payable in 2023 and seven days payable in 2024. In 2025, the final year of the phasing, employers will pay ten days per year. Statutory sick pay will be paid by employers at a rate of 70% of an employee’s wage, subject to a daily maximum of €110.
Where Medical certification is required to qualify for statutory sick pay, some form of rebate of the cost of such certification should be made available to ease the financial burden on employees, particularly those who are low paid.
In the case of businesses - particularly small businesses - provision be made for, an exemption from the sick pay requirement for businesses that can demonstrate to the Labour Court that they cannot genuinely afford to make the payment. This would be similar to a provision in relation to the payment of wages under the Minimum Wage Act 2000 (Section 4).
There should be a minimum rate of sick pay to address the particular needs of low-paid workers specified in the Act, further clarity is provided in the Act in relation to the amount of sick pay payable, in particular how the specified 70% of employee’s wage is calculated.
Legislation should provide for consultation with the social partners in relation to the implementation of its provisions.

If you are looking for help managing employee sick pay, absenteeism or other HR issues please contact us.