Ministers are facing demands to hike statutory sick pay despite fears the Budget has already delivered a hammer blow to businesses.
Some 24 union leaders have written to Keir Starmer urging him to honour a promise to ‘strengthen’ the SSP payments.
They are pushing for the level – due to rise £2 to £118.75 a week in April – to be upgraded in the Employment Rights Bill, currently going through Parliament.
However, business groups have raised alarm at soaring costs from the expansion of rights, a big rise to the national minimum wage and the Chancellor’s huge NICs raid.
Many employers go beyond the statutory sick pay, but it is often used by smaller firms and lower-paid workers.
Angela Rayner told the TUC last year that SSP would rise – although she did not specify how much.
The Employment Rights Bill will sick pay eligibility and make it available from day one of an illness – instead of the fourth day.
The letter to Sir Keir was coordinated by the Safe Sick Pay campaign, according to the BBC.
Signatories include the leaders of the PCS, the NEU, the Bakers’ Union, and the CWU.
The BBC said Professor Nicola Ranger, chief executive at the Royal College of Nursing, has warned the government must ‘live up to’ commitments.
‘Forcing nursing staff to choose between going to work unwell or struggling to make ends meet if they take leave is not only unfair but a risk to patients too.
‘People will only receive £3 an hour when they are off sick.’
The chair of the BMA’s executive council, Professor Phil Banfield, said: ‘Moving onto SSP often means a huge drop in income for many people, forcing them to go back to work before they are fit to do so.
‘All of this contributes to further physical or mental ill health, and more sick leave.’
The TUC’s response to a government consultation said: ‘If the government is to fully meet its pledge to ‘strengthen’ sick pay, the rate of SSP must also increase.
‘As it stands, the level is inadequate to meet basic living standards and…. is around 20 per cent of average earnings – amongst the lowest of the UK’s European counterparts.’
Shazia Ejaz of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said proposals to expand the scope of SSP were already set to cause problems.
She said: ‘It is important to strike a good balance between the need to make sure people have better levels of SSP and the reality of businesses (especially SMEs) being able to afford this additional cost at a time when they are already struggling with a wide range of rising employment costs, including the National Insurance rises in the Budget, new regulatory costs from the Bill and a minimum wage that has risen by a quarter in just three years.
‘Small businesses, which make up a significant portion of the market, would bear a disproportionate cost burden, with 60 per cent of new SSP costs falling on them
‘We urge the government to set the rate of SSP at a level that encourages employers to retain staff, rather than having to move swiftly to capability-based dismissal.’