As the Employment Rights Act has passed its final stages in Westminster, the Executive should be preparing to introduce it here
23rd January 2026
Although, under pressure from representatives of employers in the House of Lords and elsewhere, the Employment Rights Bill was amended in ways that the Workers Party does not agree with, the Act that passed in December 2025 provides workers with rights and protections that should be extended to workers in Northern Ireland.
Among our criticisms is that Labour reneged on its election promise to provide workers with full employment protections from ‘day one’. Under the terms of the Act workers will have to wait six months for full protections, during which time they can be legally sacked without recourse to claims of unfair dismissal.
Nonetheless, the end to zero-hour contracts and precarious employment practices will benefit low paid workers. Sick pay from the first day will benefit workers, especially in those sectors where the work is heavy and carried out in unhealthy environments.
The Act contains protections for pregnant women and new mothers, and it also includes protections for those workers who take industrial action. The partial end to anti-trade union laws will make it easier for workers to join unions and strengthen collective bargaining. The requirement brought in by the Tories in 2016 that for a strike ballot to be valid at least 50% of eligible voters should take part is removed in the Act but no deadline has been given for the implementation of this reform. We are not alone in demanding that the provisions of section 68 of the Act be implemented immediately.
Whistleblowing protection for sexual harassment is expected to become a ‘qualifying disclosure’ , which will mean protection from detriment and unfair dismissal for whistleblowers making a sexual harassment disclosure.
All of these rights including gender pay-gap action plans will need to be accompanied by detailed evaluation procedures and timelines to ensure implementation and real progress in eradicating the gender pay-gap and closing any loopholes that allows employers to circumvent the legislation as has happened in the past.
The Workers Party is calling on the Northern Ireland Assembly to introduce this legislation in Northern Ireland. Employment law in Northern Ireland is governed by Northern Ireland Assembly legislation, and employment rights are often subject to Northern Ireland-specific regulations, with differences in implementation timelines, details, and specific provisions. The Workers Party calls for the immediate implementation of the Act in Northern Ireland with full recognition of workers’ rights from day one.
The Workers Party aims for workers, the people who produce value, to achieve full democratic control of production and planning at all levels. Increased workers’ rights of the kind that Labour has put in place won’t end the exploitative relationship between workers and owners, nor will they remove profit and wealth as the motors of business and politics and all the negative effects that follow, from environmental degradation to increasing inequality to imperialist wars. With that understanding, we fully support the right of workers to organise, strong, unionised workplaces. It is time for workers in Northern Ireland to have the same rights as those in other regions of the United Kingdom.