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Annual Review of Employment Law 2020

We have published the narrative and video links (part 1 and part 2) of our Annual Review of Employment Law 2020, which has been delivered through a number of partnership events by our Director of Employment Relations Services, Mark McAllister.

Bereavement Leave

Employees are sometimes entitled to paid bereavement leave if someone close to them dies. All employees are entitled to reasonable time off without pay to arrange or attend the funeral of a dependant. The Executive have opened a consultation on parental bereavement leave that can be accessed here. It is proposed that employees would be entitled to 2 weeks parental bereavement leave with pay where the employee is eligible.

Dependants Leave

An employee is allowed a reasonable amount of time to deal with unexpected or sudden emergencies concerning a dependant. This is unpaid unless contractual arrangements state otherwise.

Garden Leave

Garden leave is a term used to describe a situation whereby an employee who has resigned from their employment or who has been dismissed by the employer is not required to work their notice and instead remains at home during the period of notice.

Whistleblowing

The Public Interest Disclosure (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 protects those who report serious wrongdoing in the workplace from dismissal or detrimental treatment as a result of their whistleblowing.

Fall Back Scheme – Parental leave

The Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 introduced a right to Parental Leave for parents of any child under the age of 18.

Tests and checks

Employers can do various checks to make sure future employees can do the job they are being hired to do, that they are entitled to work in Northern Ireland, and that they are not barred from working with vulnerable groups.

Restraint of Trade

Restraint of trade, also known as ‘restrictive covenants’ help organisations to protect themselves against competitors getting access to their confidential or commercially sensitive information.

Shared Parental Leave (SPL)

SPL is a legal entitlement for eligible parents of babies due, or children placed for adoption, on or after 5 April 2015.

Maternity Leave

The law sets out the legal minimum leave entitlements for mothers.
Agreements between employers and employees may provide for better arrangements than the statutory minimum.