Speaking to Belfast Live, the Economy Minister said that she is hopeful that the bill will be included in next week's Executive agenda
Speaking to Belfast Live, the Economy Minister said that she is hopeful that the bill will be included in next week's Executive agendathe Assembly floor in January, a timetable that she now retrospectively describes as “a little bit ambitious”, but the paper was submitted to the Executive three weeks ago, and now, the Minister hopes that it will be on the agenda at next week’s Executive meeting.
Key proposals in the bill include a right for zero-hour workers to move to a banded hours contract. But zero-hour contracts will still be allowed where work is genuinely casual or seasonal, and where that flexibility suits both employer and worker.
The legislation will also seek to ensure that tips, gratuities and service charges are passed on to workers in full; provide neonatal care leave and pay; introduce a new entitlement to unpaid carer’s leave; reform paternity leave and strengthen redundancy protection for pregnant employees and those returning from family-related leave. For an item to be on the agenda, it requires the approval of both the First and deputy First Minister, and when questioned by, Minister Archibald stated that ministers had already had the opportunity to ask questions about the bill and that she has responded to a number of ministerial queries on the bill.
“I announced the proposals that would be contained within the bill last April, and I said at that point in time it's the biggest upgrade to our employment legislation since the“There are a number of really important advancements to workers' rights contained within that legislation, things that will really make a difference to people's work and life and in particular their work-life balance and ability to have a work-life balance. “I also said when we announced the proposals that I would continue to engage to inform the actual drafting of the bill.
So I have done that. We have engaged considerably with everybody involved, with trade unions, workers' representatives and also with employers' representatives, businesses and business organisations and that has really helped to shape what is now drafted.
The drafting is complete.for a few weeks now, and I'm very hopeful that we could get the bill onto the agenda of the next Executive meeting so that we can get it introduced into the Assembly and ensure that the bill is with the Economy Committee before summer recess, so the committee can then do its scrutiny of the bill. ”Last month, a number of organisations representing the business community called for the bill to be postponed, citing concerns about the amount of time left to properly scrutinise the legislation and potential amendments.
Responding, the minister noted that the business community had acknowledged that the department had taken some of their concerns on board.
“Over the course of the progress of this piece of legislation, we've done over 100 engagements between originally Conor Murphy, then myself and officials with a whole range of organisations and individual businesses and that to me has really helped shape the legislation as it is now drafted,” the Minister said. “I would be hopeful when people actually see the detail of the bill that they will recognise that concerns have been taken on board and I would appeal to people to reserve their judgement until they actually see the detail of the bill and then, obviously, they will have the opportunity to engage with the“I will also continue to engage.
I have done engagements earlier this week. Later this afternoon, I will be meeting with trade union representatives, and tomorrow I will again be meeting with employer representatives. ” Minister Archibald has said that her bill has the support of several ministerial colleagues, and she is hopeful that it will be on the agenda at next week’s meeting.
When asked if she feels that the bill is being stalled from getting on the agenda, the Minister said: “I appreciate that it is a big bill, that there is a lot of detail to it. It's been sitting with the Executive now for three weeks.
“I would be hopeful, given that there has been engagement between ministers, we have responded to a number of ministerial queries, and we have support expressed from a number of ministers for the bill to progress. So I'd be hopeful that it makes the agenda of the next, or if ministers have any queries between now and then, I would be more than happy to engage to ensure that we can get this progressing as quickly as possible.
Stormont Northern Ireland Executive Department For The Economy
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