The Belfast office of law firm Lewis Silkin says that the deadline for the ‘Good Jobs’ Employment Rights Bill to be passed before the end of the current NI Assembly mandate is approaching fast.
In July 2024, the Department for the Economy announced the most significant changes in a decade to the NI employment law framework. The proposed ‘Good Jobs’ Employment Rights Bill promised to deliver meaningful change for NI employers and employees alike.
Public consultation on the wide-reaching reforms followed that summer but progress in delivering the bill into law has stalled. With just under 14 months remaining before the end of the current NI Assembly mandate, Lewis Silkin says time is running out.
Leeanne Armstrong, Managing Associate at Lewis Silkin says that despite initial optimism the timeline has slipped.
“We recognise that 14 months is a challenging timeframe in which to complete the necessary work to ensure the passage of the ‘Good Jobs’ bill to become law and bring about these needed reforms, but with where the bill is in the process now, there is a real risk that the bill may not pass before the end of the current mandate,” says Ms Armstrong. “This means that the legislative process would need to start again from the beginning under a new mandate, with no guarantee that the same policy priorities currently underpinning the bill would be maintained.
“This understandably leaves much uncertainty for employers in Northern Ireland in terms of planning and implementing...
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