On 28 April 2025, the Minister for the Economy, Caoimhe Archibald, delivered an update on the Good Jobs Employment Rights Bill in the Northern Ireland Assembly. If implemented, they will represent the largest reform of Northern Ireland’s employment legislation in around 25 years.

 

The Minister outlined proposals across four main themes:

Terms of employment

• Zero hours contracts will only be permissible for work which is genuinely casual or seasonal.
• Zero hours workers will have the right to reasonable notice of shifts and compensation if shifts are cancelled or curtailed at short notice.
• Zero hours workers will have the right to request banded hours reflecting their average working hours.
• Employees and workers will receive written statements of employment particulars on the first day of employment.
• ‘Fire and rehire’ practices will only be permissible in limited circumstances, where a business isn’t viable and the alternative would be loss of jobs.
• Compliance obligations for formal notification of collective redundancies will be strengthened.
• Agency workers will be provided with clearer information about the terms of their work assignment and the “Swedish derogation” will be abolished.

 

Pay and benefits

• A statutory code of practice on the right to disconnect will be introduced
• Tips will be passed on to workers in full.
• All workers to be legally entitled to a payslip which, if paid hourly, details their time worked.
• The reference period used to calculate holiday pay will increase from 12 to 52 weeks.

 

Voice and representation

• The Department for the Economy will work with the Labour Relations Agency, trade unions and employers to create a code of practice on positive workplace relationships.
• The LRA Engagement Forum will be used to promote collective bargaining, with the aim of achieving a coverage rate of 80%.
• The threshold for trade union recognition will reduce from 21 to 10 employees.
• Trade unions will be able to request workplace access and employers will not be able to unreasonably refuse.
• Trade unions will be allowed to use electronic balloting.
• The threshold to request a formal information agreement under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2005 will drop from 10% / 15 employees to 2% / 10 employees.
• The 12 week time limit on protection against dismissal for employees taking part in official industrial action will be removed.

 

Work life balance

• Requesting flexible working (FWR) will become a day one right for employees.
• Refusal of a FWR must be ‘reasonable’.
• Employees will be able to make two flexible working requests in a 12 month period.
• Employees will be entitled to 1 week of unpaid carer’s leave every 12 months.
• Employees will be entitled to 12 weeks’ paid neonatal leave.
• Employees will be able to take paternity leave in two separate one-week blocks or a single block of 2 weeks, within 52 weeks of birth. The notice period for taking paternity leave will be reduced to 28 days.
• Pregnant employees and those returning from maternity leave will have enhanced protections from redundancy and dismissal.

 

The majority of changes will bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK. Certain changes, like the abolition of the Swedish derogation, have been substantially delayed due to the lack of functioning government in the last decade.

 

However, the proposed introduction of banded hours for zero-hours workers would see Northern Ireland follow the same approach as the Republic of Ireland, and would create a marked divergence with the forthcoming changes to zero hour working arrangements in UK.

 

There is further scope for divergence with the rest of the UK with the wide range of reforms proposed in UK as part of Labour’s Employment Rights Bill. These include major changes such as making unfair dismissal protection a “day one” employment. We have written in more detail about how the NI and UK proposals compare here.

 

Employers will welcome the extension of the reference period for the calculation of holiday pay to 52-weeks. Otherwise, the changes are largely employee focused, though in the main they bring NI in line with recent changes in UK. In particular, employers can expect a rise in flexible working requests when these changes are implemented.

 

These proposals will be brought to the Executive for agreement, with the new Employment Bill intended to be brought and passed within the current Assembly mandate, with implementation phased across the next mandate.

 

As always, the detail will be crucial, and employers should carefully review the proposals in the draft Bill once introduced, as well as any further changes made during the Assembly’s consultation process before it becomes law.

 

For legal guidance and advice regarding Employment Law queries, please contact our Employment Team for more information.

While great care has been taken in the preparation of the content of this article, it does not purport to be a comprehensive statement of the relevant law and full professional advice should be taken before any action is taken in reliance on any item covered.