2024 was a year of big proposals for changes to the legal framework across the board in Northern Ireland and in GB with the introduction of the Employment Rights Bill in October 2024 following the Labour party’s general election victory as well as the “Good Jobs” Employment Rights Bill consultation in Northern Ireland.
We summarise the big changes, what to expect in 2025, and what remains outstanding.
‘Good Jobs’ Employment Rights Bill Consultation
The most significant development in Northern Irish employment law in 2024 came in the form of the ‘Good Jobs’ Employment Rights Bill consultation, paving the way for the biggest overhaul in Northern Irish employment law in a decade. We set out the proposals in detail here.
What, if any, developments on this legislation are we likely to see in 2025? The consultation closed in September 2024, and the Department for the Economy has stated its intention to publish a summary of the consultation responses and have draft legislation in place by March 2025.
Even if the Department sticks to this timeline, we can’t expect significant changes to take place until late 2025, early 2026 at the earliest.
We previously wrote about out predictions on the likely changes here. The consultation is clear on the direction it is likely to take in relation to certain proposals likely to come into effect in the shorter term, such as changes to written statement of particulars, pay statements, changes to the law on tips and some changes to flexible working and other family rights which largely already apply in GB.
Other headline changes proposed in the consultation included overhaul of zero hours contracts, reforms to Trade Union rights and simplification of employment status or a formal right to disconnect are likely to take much longer and inform policy in the longer term.
Consultation on implementing Domestic Abuse ‘safe leave’
A consultation on regulations needed to operationalise the right for employees who are victims of domestic abuse to take up to 10 days’ paid ‘safe leave’ per year, was concluded in September 2024. The Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 established the right to this leave, so we now await draft regulations following the summary of the consultation in the coming year. We wrote about this here.
Northern Ireland would be the first part of the UK to put this type of leave in place for employees, and with a Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Bill introduced to the House of Commons in early January 2025, it seems GB is likely to follow suit.
Consultation on Pay Gap Reporting Regulations
8 years after legislation was put into place to allow for gender pay reporting in NI via the Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, the Department for Communities released a consultation on regulations to implement this in November 2024. The consultation remains open until 14 February 2025 but makes clear that the new regime is not expected to come into force until early 2027, so whilst progress has finally been made, nothing is happening quickly.
Whilst the regime will likely mirror that already in place for some time in GB, it will be interesting to see how regulations and guidance develop over particular aspects of this new obligation in NI. In particular, the consultation makes clear disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting obligations will be included in the new regime, but there have been no details as to how this will work. With similar obligations expected to come into force in GB via the proposed (but not yet published) Equality (Race and Disability) Bill we will await and see what further details emerge in 2025 and beyond. We wrote further about this here
What’s happening with holiday pay?
The position with holiday pay in Northern Ireland is somewhat complex, and whilst further clarification was provided in 2024, a number of issues still need to be addressed.
The latest on Agnew
One of the biggest cases of 2023 was the long-awaited Supreme Court decision in the case of Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland v Agnew, increasing financial exposure for employers in both GB and NI who have not calculated holiday pay correctly. As expected, employers, employment law and HR practitioners, the Tribunal and conciliation services have been busy in 2024 dealing with the fall out of the plethora of holiday pay cases which had been put on hold pending the Agnew decision.
But it doesn’t end there. A Case Management Preliminary Hearing in relation to Agnew holiday pay cases was scheduled in December 2024 to consider issues around remedy and calculation of payments, including, whether cost of living and interest should be account for in calculations and whether retrospective payments should date back to 1998 when the Working Time Regulations were introduced in NI or 1996 when the Directive required the Regulations be introduced, for example. We will watch this space for further developments.
Carry over of holiday pay
Separately, the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 came into force at the beginning of 2024 and clarified that workers may carry over 5.6 weeks of leave into a proceeding holiday year if prevented from taking it due to statutory leave such as adoption or maternity leave. Workers can carry over 4 weeks’ leave if unable to take it due to sickness and various circumstances in which employers prevent employees from taking this leave. 4 weeks’ leave must include payments (including commission) intrinsically linked to performance of work under contract.
Are there any other changes with holiday pay coming?
Proposals in relation to holiday pay were disappointingly light in the ‘Good Jobs’ consultation. Whilst there was a proposal to move towards a 52 week pay reference period for calculating holiday pay for irregular hour workers (rather than the current 12-week period), other changes to holiday pay which have applied in GB from January 2024 were, however, not mentioned.
There appear to be no plans to permit rolled up holiday pay for part time/irregular workers, or new system for accruing annual leave entitlement on the last day of each pay period at the rate of 12.07% of hours worked in that period. Nor would there seem to be any proposal to introduce a two year back stop for claims for underpayment of holiday pay, as was the case in GB which introduced The Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 to impose a two-year limit on unlawful deductions claims brought after 1 July 2015.
This is likely to have been raised as a notable omission in responses to the ‘Good Jobs’ consultation, and it remains to be seen whether these issues are in fact addressed as we receive draft legislation in the coming year.
What is happening with diversity, equity and inclusion in NI?
Whilst some inroads have been made with the launch of the pay gap consultation, Northern Ireland continues to remain out of step with the rest of the UK in relation to equality legislation.
In recognition of this, the Committee for the Executive undertook an Inquiry in summer 2024 into differences in equality legislation between Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK and the EU, and the impacts of these divergences in legislation.
There is no single unifying piece of equality legislation in Northern Ireland like GB’s Equality Act 2010, rather we remain bound by 9 pieces of separate legislation which, whilst similar, do not provide as comprehensive protection to employees in Northern Ireland through various gaps in our legislation.
Oral evidence sessions have been ongoing since September 2024 and findings of the Inquiry are expected to be published in early 2025, with potential recommendations for change in equality legislation in Northern Ireland.
Racial equality
The NI Executive also reviewed racial equality legislation in 2024 to establish if it meets the needs of minority ethnic communities in NI, and as a result, amending regulations are anticipated in the coming year. These are likely to address the forms of employees and employment covered by the legislation, guidance on legitimate aims in occupational requirements, requirement for positive action to prevent third party harassment and increasing protection for agency workers.
What about other employee rights?
Bereavement leave
Following a public consultation and agreement on subsequent regulations, the current parental bereavement rights in NI (which, since April 2022, entitle eligible working parents who lose a child under the age of 18 to two weeks’ paid bereavement leave) are to be extended to include working parents who suffer the loss of a child through miscarriage. It is also proposed that working parents will become entitled to all rights from day one of their employment.
Currently, parental bereavement pay is only available to employees who have been continuously employed with their employer for 26 weeks prior to the death of the child. The miscarriage and period of eligibility changes must apply no later than 2026, but we may see further movement on this in 2025. For more detail, see parental bereavement leave introduced in NI.
Statutory Sick Pay
The Employment Rights Bill in GB makes substantial changes to payment of SSP which is currently payable from day four of sickness, and employees need to be earning above the lower earnings limit of £123 to qualify. The new GB Bill will make SSP payable from day one of sickness and payable for the first 3 qualifying days of sickness, and the lower earnings limit will be removed meaning all eligible employees will be entitled to SSP regardless of earnings.
Whilst there were no proposals for changes to statutory sick pay provision in NI under the ‘Good Jobs’ consultation, it looks like changes will apply to Northern Ireland through the Employment Rights Bill Amendment Paper which will introduce measures in NI to mirror the new provisions in GB. Concurrently, the Department for the Communities undertook a consultation on the appropriate percentage replacement rates for individuals earning below the current flat rate of SSP.
When these changes will come into effect largely depends on the progress of the Employment Rights Bill, under which the majority of reforms are anticipated to take effect from 2026, but we may hear further on these changes and the new SSP regime in NI during the course of 2025.
Changes to Tribunal rules
Changes to the Tribunal Regulations in Northern Ireland were introduced late in 2024, we wrote about this here. These included various administrative changes surrounding the use of a single claim or response form for multiple parties, issuing of default judgments, notice of hearings.
The primary amendment will now allow an Employment Judge to sit alone when hearing Tribunal cases, which is a significant change to previous regulations which required a panel to consist of an Employment Judge alongside one or two non-legal panel members in all cases.
No further direction has been provided as to the practicalities of this amendment. Similar changes were brought into force in October 2024 in GB, with Presidential Guidance determining that, in each case, an Employment Judge will decide, having regard to the interests of justice and the overriding objective, whether the case will be heard by a panel or an Employment Judge sitting alone. It is likely a similar approach will be taken in NI, and we await further guidance on this issue in 2025.
The changes were brought in to simplify and speed up the process of resolving workplace disputes through the Tribunal system, which is severely overloaded. It remains to be seen how effective this change in approach will be in achieving this aim, and whether a move away from inclusion of lay panel members undermines the concept of fairness and justice central to the tribunal system.
National living wage and other rises
The usual changes to the National Living Wage will apply from April 2025, with a small increase from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour. This is designed to narrow the gap between the legal minimum and the so-called ‘real’ living wage, namely what people really need to live on, taking account of the cost of living. The Living Wage Foundation has set the ‘real’ living wage outside London at £12.60 per hour.
The current rates for the National Living Wage and the National Minimum Wage are set out here.
Statutory sick pay is expected to go up to £118.75 in April (from the current rate of £116.75) and the weekly prescribed rate of statutory maternity pay (and pay for other similar types of leave) is expected to be £187.18 up slightly from £184.03).
The increase in the weekly pay rate used for statutory redundancy payments and other purposes and the 2025 revised basic and unfair dismissal amounts have not yet been announced.
In Summary
After years of inaction, 2024 was a milestone year for employment law developments in Northern Ireland with a number of consultations and sweeping proposals announced. 2025 is likely to be a year of further developments, where we will hopefully see some of these proposed changes coming to fruition. It remains to be seen what progress is made, what changes are implemented in the short term, and whether further clarity and reform is come in 2025.