Significant changes to employment laws in Northern Ireland have moved closer to being implemented after the Department for the Economy released its response to the recent ‘Good Jobs’ consultation and confirmed those proposals which it intends to now take forward.
The proposals – set out under four themes of terms of employment, pay and benefits, voice and representation and work-life balance – will align Northern Ireland’s employment laws with those applicable in Great Britain in a number of areas, but will also leave significant divergence between the laws in both jurisdictions.
Below, we look at what employers in Northern Ireland can expect from the reform package, which has emerged from the consultation exercise last year, including how policymaking in this devolved area will align or diverge with upcoming changes in the UK government’s Employment Rights Bill (ERB), which will largely not apply to Northern Ireland.
The Department for the Economy wants to ensure that terms of employment bring job security, stability and clarity in a world of work that has changed significantly in recent years.
Zero hours contracts
Proposals for a new bill begin with the commitment to introduce measures to “end the use of exploitative and inequitable zero hours contracts”. It will introduce rights for zero-hour and low-hour workers to: reasonable notice of shifts; payments for shifts cancelled, moved and curtailed at short notice; and a...
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