Sick pay for MD

This might be a bit long.
My father and his brother set up a limited company 5 years ago. Both are MDs.
In that time the brother has been increasingly taking days off due to alcoholism, inc 3 months fully paid in 2003.
Recently, he has taken quite a few days off sick, and in march was only in for 3 days.
So the brother came back in (with a doctors note), and expected to be paid. Since he was paid for every other sick day he took til now, he expected to be paid.
But my father is not paying him, saying he has no right to sick pay, that he has been payed enough alrteady for time taken off.
The brother insists he is entitled tp pay, my father says he is not and wont pay him.
Surely, sick pay for an md is different than an employee (like me). The government website only gives info on employee sick pay, not MD sick pay, or is their a difference?

I don't think sick pay is the real issue. If two partners are in this sort of a dispute then the partnership is in trouble. If one partner thinks the other is freeloading and the other sees no problem with taking that sort of time off how can the business last?

With massive difficulty. Myself and my father work til all hours in here, and tbh, we have our new company registered and all while we organise this place, and get it closed down, but is the other md entitled to sick pay?

In short NO. In fact nobody is entitled to be paid their full salary by the company when off sick unless it is provided in their contract. It is payable at the discretion of the employer (unless stated in the contract) and most likely you will be asked to sign over any Disability Benefit payment from the Department of Social and Family Affairs to your er.

Ok, well at least i can argue the point now. When they setup the company, they did sign a form, and it says nothing in it about sick pay , just the usual company formation stuff.
The only person who signed any contract is me (the only emplyee)...
and the (often missing) brother is whining on about labour courts and all sorts of crap, so i just told him in plain english that its his company,if he doesnt want to come in, it cant afford to pay him, and their is no sick pay provision for him. If he doesnt want to come into work he doesnt get payed.

There is no distinction between a director and any other employee in these situations and as Lorz says, sick pay is at the discretion of the employer (which is the company itself rather than your father). He would only be entitled to full pay if he has a contract of employment with the company which states he is entitled to full pay for any sick leave.

So if the pair of them are the directors,and they are the company which of them decides on the sick leave?
One says he is due to get it...
the other says he is not...
Where would he stand if he went to the labour court??
I had a look in the files, the only thing they signes at commencement of the company was the Articles of association and company formation forms etc.

if there is only two directors there will be a deadlock as they don't agree. It it is important to note that it is the company that your uncle is claiming against and not your father, your father is only a director and(presumably) has not acted fraudulently so cannot be held personally liable for company debts.

if there is no employment contract then your uncle has no rights regarding sick leave and is not entitled to payment from the company. He should contact the social welfare to claim benefit from them.

Thanks a million - let the war begin....

Are they equal shareholders? If not, I would imagine that the person holding the greater amount of the shares would have the upper hand. If they were equal shareholders, then, as podowd states "there will be deadlock".

While it is different in other EU countries, there is no automatic paid sick leave for Irish workers. The fact that your uncle is a director, MD or partner accounts for nothing. Without a contract that states otherwise, he is subject to the same rules as everyone else.

In a nutshell, I don't think he has a legal leg to stand on. On the otherhand, he sounds like someone who needs help.