Why is Northern Ireland lagging so far behind GB when it comes to employment law?

Since April, employees in the UK have been allowed to request flexible working hours from day one on the job. Even though a different deal may have been previously established between the candidate and the recruiter, the newly employed worker will have the statutory right to change their hours or place of work, for example, eradicating the previous waiting period of six months of employment to do so.

Employees will also be able to make a flexible working request twice a year. Employers have two months to respond and must agree unless there is a genuine business reason not to do so, including the burden of additional costs, or not being able to meet customers’ demands.

In NI, many employers have embraced and even encouraged hybrid work patterns, especially since the Covid lockdown. However, employees still must have worked at the company for 26 weeks continuously before requesting a flexible work pattern – and are only allowed to make a second request after 12 months.

Another substantial change is the new redundancy protection law for parents on maternity leave, adoption or shared parental leave whenever they come back to work. The new legislation has extended parents’ protection from the time they disclose their pregnancy to their employer for up to 18 months after the expected week of childbirth, the child’s date of birth or adoption. If there is a prospect of redundancy for the parents, a suitable alternative job must be offered.

Unfortunately, the laws in Northern Ireland are still not as sympathetic to new parents. If their role is made redundant during maternity leave, the employer is legally required to give them the first option of suitable alternative work that is available, but new parents can’t count on that safety net of one year and a half to organise their lives and finances around the arrival of a new child.

The Carer's Leave Act, which has recently come into force in the UK, contemplates a working category that amounts to 5.7 million people, and that has become increasingly important when supporting older, disabled or seriously ill friends or relatives. The new legislation provides all carers in employment with a new statutory right to take five days of unpaid leave from work each year to fulfil their caring responsibilities – they can use this time to care for a dependent or give another carer some respite for a week, for example.

Once more, the disparity between legislation in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK is evident. The Department for the Economy has affirmed publicly a new employment rights bill is in the plans and the right to carer's leave will be considered. Meanwhile, according to support organisation, Carers NI, one in three local carers are leaving work because of caring demands.

Research undertaken by the charity organisation showcased that if employers could prevent even 1% of workers who are currently juggling employment with caring responsibilities from leaving their jobs and applying for Carer’s Allowance, 1,030 people would stay in work and the NI Executive would avoid spending £4.3 million per year in extra Carer’s Allowance payments.

As the baton of responsibility passes to the new Minister of Economy, Deirdre Hargey, it becomes imperative to progress with proactive policy proposals to modernise the outdated employment laws in Northern Ireland. The government must address the evolving needs of both workers and business in this dynamic era of work. As well as safeguarding the rights of workers, employment laws also provide the necessary framework for businesses to thrive - creating social wellbeing as well as economic prosperity.