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The Industrial Court (Membership) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022
These Regulations amend the Industrial Court (Membership) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011 (the “Membership Regulations”).
Regulation 2 amends regulation 3 of the Membership Regulations by removing a number of the current legislative provisions in relation to members of the Industrial Court (the “Court”) holding and vacating office and replacing those provisions with a reliance on each member’s terms of appointment.
Regulation 3 contains a transitional provision for current members of the Court.
The Court is a non-departmental tribunal body whose main function is to adjudicate on applications relating to the statutory recognition or derecognition of trade unions for collective bargaining purposes, where this cannot be agreed voluntarily.
The Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (Persons Abroad and Mariners) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022
These Regulations relate to the treatment under Part 12ZD of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 of persons abroad, persons who work as mariners and persons who work on the continental shelf. The effect is that certain persons who would otherwise not fulfil the qualifying conditions for entitlement to statutory parental bereavement pay because of the nature of their employment or the fact that they are outside the United Kingdom will have an entitlement to such pay.
Regulation 4 limits the application of the Regulations to cases where the person would be treated as an employee under Part 12ZD of the Act if the employment were in Northern Ireland.
Regulation 5 provides for a person who is absent from Northern Ireland but in respect of whom an employer has secondary Class 1 national insurance contribution liability to be treated as an employee for the purposes of the Part 12ZD.
Regulation 6 relaxes any time limit imposed by Part 12ZD of the Act or regulations made under it in relation to a person who cannot comply with the time limit because that person is outside the United Kingdom.
Regulation 7 treats certain classes of mariners as employees for the purposes of Part 12ZD and regulation 8 makes corresponding provision for persons working on the continental shelf
The Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (Commencement No. 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 2020
This Order brings into operation certain provisions of the Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 on 27th January 2020.
Article 2(a) to (e) commence provisions on early conciliation of employment disputes.
Article 2(f) commences the provision which places an obligation on the Department to review early conciliation.
Article 2(g) and (h) commences the provisions that permits the Department to make regulations which provide that the members of the panel of chairmen of industrial tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal may be referred to as employment judges.
Article 2(i) commences the provision which prohibits the Labour Relations Agency, or persons appointed by the Agency, from releasing information relating to a worker, employer of a worker, or a trade union, that they hold in the course of performing their functions.
Article 2(j) corrects a small number of references in the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, dealing with statutory shared parental pay, which were introduced by the Work and Families Act (Northern Ireland) 2015
Article 2(k) updates legislative references in Schedules 2 and 4 to the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003.
Article 2(l) and (o) gives effect to the dispute resolution repeals in Schedule 3 of the Act.
Article 2(m) and (n) gives effect to Schedules 1 and 2, which respectively, make minor and consequential amendments to existing legislation, and set out how the relevant time limits for bringing a claim will be extended where necessary to provide sufficient time for early conciliation to take place and to ensure that the claimant is not disadvantaged.
New rates for National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
From the 1st of April 2024, the changes in respect of the above are as follows:
* If you are 21 and over, you will be entitled to £11.44 per hour (National Living Wage)
* If you are between 18-20, you are entitled to £8.60
* If you are under 18 or an Apprentice, you will be entitled to £6.40
Please note that to avail of the National Minimum Wage you must be at least of school leaving age
In Northern Ireland this means If you turn 16 during the school year (between the 1st of September and the 1st of July) you can leave school after the 30th of June.
If you turn 16 between 2 July and 31 August you can’t leave school until 30 June the following year.
You can access the relevant legislation by clicking on the link below
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/432/made
The Rehabilitation of Offenders (Exceptions) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2019
This instrument amends the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Exceptions) Order (Northern Ireland) 1979 (“the 1979 Order”) to give effect to changes to a criminal record ‘filtering scheme’ that allows some old and minor spent convictions to be ‘filtered, so that they are no longer disclosed and cannot be taken into account in employment decisions in certain circumstances. The 1978 Order makes it possible for certain convictions to become “spent”, which means that after a specified period a person can be treated for certain purposes as if the conviction had never happened and they need not, for example, tell an employer about the conviction when applying for a job.
To ensure that the public is adequately protected, however, certain exceptions to the 1978 Order are set out in the 1979 Order so that, for specified professions and occupations that typically involve a high degree of trust and often involve vulnerable persons, applicants must declare all past convictions when asked. The 1979 Order is amended periodically to ensure that the access to the criminal record disclosure regime keeps pace with changes in public risk; to ensure that disclosure regimes remain consistent across jurisdictions where appropriate; and to maintain the public trust and protection process.
This Order, the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Exceptions) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2019 (“the 2019 Order”), stems from a Supreme Court judgment, which ruled that elements of the criminal record ‘filtering scheme’ operated by the Department of Justice were disproportionate. The ‘filtering scheme’ was established in 2014 following a review of the criminal records regime in Northern Ireland that was carried out by Sunita Mason during 2011, which recommended that the Department of Justice should filter old and minor convictions from standard and enhanced criminal record certificates; and to take account of the findings of two court cases concerning the disclosure of criminal record material at that time.
The terms of the scheme are that a conviction can be filtered after a period of 11 years (or 5.5 years for those under 18 at the time of the conviction), so long as the conviction was not for a specified offence as listed in the 1979 Order (e.g. serious violent and sexual offences; or offences of specific relevance for posts concerned with safeguarding children and vulnerable adults; etc.); did not attract a custodial sentence; and if there is no other conviction on the individual’s record.
The Supreme Court found that limiting the filtering scheme to a single offence, with the result that more than one old and minor conviction would be disclosed automatically, was disproportionate. The Department has, therefore, adjusted the terms of the scheme to allow more than one offence to be filtered in order to comply with the judgment.
The 2019 Order gives effect to this change by amending the 1979 Order to remove Article 1A(2)(c), which restricted the terms of the filtering scheme to a single conviction. The Department is satisfied that public protection is maintained, however, as the remaining elements of the filtering scheme will continue to ensure that there is no increased risk to the public as a result of this change.
Labour Relations Agency, Fermanagh Enterprise Ltd and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council to Offer Free ‘Essentials of Employment Legislation’ Event
The Labour Relations Agency, Fermanagh Enterprise Limited and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council have joined forces to offer a free event on the Essentials of Employment Legislation on Tuesday 8 October.
Sharp rise in redundancy enquiries to the Labour Relations Agency
Our Workplace Information Service have observed a notable surge in enquiries from both employees and employers regarding redundancy.
Labour Relations Agency’s New North West Office Open for Business
The Labour Relations Agency has moved to a new location in Derry/Londonderry’s Richmond Chambers in The Diamond. The more accessible city centre office has newly refurbished seminar and meeting rooms for the delivery of the Agency’s dispute resolution and advisory services.
Labour Relations Agency Public Meeting to Explore Link Between Good Employment Relations and a Strong Economy
The link between harmonious, productive workplaces and a thriving economy is the theme of the Labour Relations Agency’s annual public meeting on Thursday 25 October in Belfast’s Radisson Blu Hotel at 11.30am.