The Belfast office of law firm Lewis Silkin says that the deadline for the ‘Good Jobs’ Employment Rights Bill to be passed before the end of the current NI Assembly mandate is approaching fast.
In July 2024, the Department for the Economy announced the most significant changes in a decade to the NI employment law framework. The proposed ‘Good Jobs’ Employment Rights Bill promised to deliver meaningful change for NI employers and employees alike.
Public consultation on the wide-reaching reforms followed that summer but progress in delivering the bill into law has stalled. With just under 14 months remaining before the end of the current NI Assembly mandate, Lewis Silkin says time is running out.
Leeanne Armstrong, Managing Associate at Lewis Silkin says that despite initial optimism the timeline has slipped.
“We recognise that 14 months is a challenging timeframe in which to complete the necessary work to ensure the passage of the ‘Good Jobs’ bill to become law and bring about these needed reforms, but with where the bill is in the process now, there is a real risk that the bill may not pass before the end of the current mandate,” says Ms Armstrong. “This means that the legislative process would need to start again from the beginning under a new mandate, with no guarantee that the same policy priorities currently underpinning the bill would be maintained.
“This understandably leaves much uncertainty for employers in Northern Ireland in terms of planning and implementing any changes into their workforce policies, processes and budgets,” she says.
After its initial consultation process in 2024, followed by the Economy Minister’s presentation of the proposed legislation in April 2025, stakeholders had anticipated receiving the printed bill shortly after Easter last year. But as of the most recent Economy Committee meeting last month (February 2026) officials confirmed that the bill is still being drafted.
The current expectation is that the bill will go to the Executive for approval in the coming weeks, with the hope that it will reach the Economy Committee for scrutiny by May.
Failure to enact the Bill would also leave Northern Ireland significantly out of step with the rest of the UK. Employment law here has stagnated due to successive Assembly collapses, and the ‘Good Jobs’ Bill was intended to bridge that gap. However, since its announcement, the new Labour government has enacted the Employment Rights Act 2025, introducing even greater reforms and widening the divergence further. It also has a detrimental effect on implementing the long overdue mandatory Gender Pay Gap reporting regime in NI, which the Department for the Communities announced will only proceed once the ‘Good Jobs bill has received royal assent.
However, Northern Ireland is leading the way across the UK and the island of Ireland in respect of certain other rights and protections for employees, with the introduction of paid miscarriage leave (which is effective from 6th April 2026) and having legislated for domestic abuse safe leave, but we are falling behind in more basic employment provisions, such as day 1 family friendly rights and flexible working, zero hour contract reform and basic pay and benefit improvements.
With uncertainty around timing, Lewis Silkin is advising employers to stay abreast of developments as the bill progresses through the Assembly and early panning.
Ms Armstrong adds: “It’s really important that employers familiarise themselves with the proposed reforms given the wide-ranging changes that may affect workplace policies if this bill passes.
“We would also encourage engaging with the Economy Committee. The Committee Stage represents a significant opportunity for employer bodies and individual organisations to make their views known. Some of the changes proposed under the bill would have a significant impact on employers. Stakeholders with concerns or ideas about specific provisions and how these will work in practice for employers should prepare to engage with the Economy Committee and individual MLAs to help shape the legislation to suit your needs.
“We’d also suggest that employers keep an eye on developments in Great Britain as the delay of our own ‘Good Jobs’ bill has, in part, been a result of seeing where the Employment Rights Bill eventually landed and how this would play out for employers and employees. Now that the Employment Rights Act 2025 has passed, there remains scope for individual MLAs or the Department to bring forward amendments aligning Northern Ireland more closely with GB.”
For more information on the ‘Good Jobs’ Employments Rights bill, visit the Lewis Silkin website.