More than a million low-paid employees will be entitled to sick pay for the first time under Labour’s latest workers’ rights drive.
Currently workers must have been off for more than three days in a row and earn at least £123 a week before they can claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
But now the Government has announced that low earners will get 80 per cent of their average weekly pay – or the new SSP rate of £118.75 – and will be able to claim it from their first day of illness.
It is estimated that 1.3m people will be up to £100 a week better off under the new system, announced as the first of a series of updates to the flagship Employments Rights Bill which businesses fear will ‘do more harm than good’.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said: ‘For too long, sick workers have had to decide between staying at home and losing a day’s pay, or soldiering on at their own risk just to make ends meet.
‘No one should ever have to choose between their health and earning a living, which is why we are making this landmark change.’
Trade unions had demanded that low-paid staff receive 95 per cent of their weekly pay.
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: ‘This shouldn’t be the end of the story. We urge ministers in future to raise the replacement rate for the lowest earners beyond 80 per cent and undertake a wider review of the statutory sick pay rate.’
But some business groups warned that giving all workers the right to claim sick pay from day one could increase absenteeism.
Jane Gratton, Deputy Director of Public Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: ‘The announcement that the lowest-paid UK workers are to be guaranteed statutory sick pay (SSP) worth up to 80 per cent of their weekly salary, is a fair and reasonable compromise.
‘While employers want to support people, it would not be right for staff to receive more in sick pay than their regular earnings.
‘However, firms are worried that a day-one entitlement to SSP for all workers could lead to an increase in staff absenteeism that will be difficult for SMEs to accommodate.’
The Department for Business and Trade is expected to announce today that the so-called right to switch off – protecting workers from being contacted out of normal office hours – will be dropped from future plans for workers’ rights.