Mr McLaughlin told Donegal Daily: “The Government have used this budget to introduce measures which will effect workers who must go on sick leave.
“This means that a worker certified as being unfit to work by their GP will not be entitled to receive sickness benefit for the first six days.
“This will particularly impact on the vast majority of private sector workers who do not have sick pay schemes in the work place, forcing hard pressed working people to go without.”
Mr McLaughlin said the cut was particularly cruel for workers who were helping to keep the country afloat.
“These very workers are contributing to the benefits system yet are increasingly being denied any support from it,” he said.
“The reality is that private sector workers are being constantly drained of their income to support a completely unfair system”.
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