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Contractor versus Employee versus Worker
Employees, workers and contractors have different rights and responsibilities.
Working Time Regulations
In addition to the rights outlined around qualifying periods, a number of other rights and responsibilities exist. These relate to rest breaks, the number of hours a worker can be required to work and paid leave.
Redundancy
When employers wish to make employees redundant they must follow a clear and fair process. The Labour Relations Agency has a redundancy flowchart which can help employers and employees in this situation.
Annual Closedowns
Employers may elect to close their business at certain times of the year. (Christmas/new year)
Pay in Lieu of Notice (PILON)
A payment in lieu of notice is made in circumstances where an employee is not required to work their notice period but is paid a sum of money instead.
Hiring young people
There are certain laws that protect the employment rights of young workers. Such laws are around health and safety, what jobs young workers can do, when they can work and how many hours they can work. If you want to employ young people — in some cases, this can include people up to the age of 25 — it is important to be aware of your legal responsibilities.
Leave without pay
There may be circumstances where an employee is required to take unpaid leave from their employment.
Conciliation services
We offer free conciliation services to help parties involved in a workplace dispute to come to a legally binding resolution, without needing to go through a public tribunal. We offer both individual conciliation and collective conciliation, for example where an issue affects a number of employees.
Calculating holiday entitlement
A worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks paid annual leave per year. This entitlement starts on the day the employee begins employment.
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.