Unions step up sick pay campaign

As the Employment Rights Bill progresses through Parliament, unions campaigning to improve Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) are calling on the public to email their MP and ask for support for their demands.

Some 20 union organisations are part of the campaign, Safe Sick Pay. This says around one in four workers rely on SSP when taking time off sick, but the UK currently has the worst SSP in the developed world.

Workers only receive it on the fourth day of sickness and 1.3 million employees “slip through the cracks” and get no SSP at all.

The campaign is calling for the earnings threshold for SSP to be abolished; SSP to be payable from the first day of sickness absence; increased sick pay in line with a worker’s wage up to the real living wage; and the development of a flexible model for SSP which allows for a phased return to work and income protection for workers.