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SSP Entitlement Northern Ireland – Temporary Extension
Temporary changes were made to the SSP Regulations effective from 14th December 2020 to deal with the exceptional circumstances faced by employers and employees in relation to Covid related illness.
National Minimum Wage Changes 2020
The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2020
These Regulations are the annual amendments to the National Minimum Wage legislation which has existed since 1999 and they come into effect on 1/4/20.
The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020
The purpose of these regulations is to reduce burdens on businesses employing salaried staff (those paid an annual salary in equal instalments) from complying with the NMW rules, without removing protections or benefits for workers.
No 199 (C 12) The Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (Commencement No. 1) Order (Northern Ireland) 2017
This Commencement Order brings into effect in Northern Ireland, as of 1/10/17, reforms to the Public Interest Disclosure (commonly referred to as the Whistle-Blowing legislation) which have been implemented in Great Britain between 2013 and 2015.
No 319 The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Prescribed Criteria and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012
These Regulations come into operation on 10/9/12 and amend the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Prescribed Criteria and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 which prescribe the criteria which determine whether a person should be included automatically in the children’s barred list or the adults’ barred list maintained by the Independent Safeguarding Authority under Article 6 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007 (“the 2007 Order”).
No 86 The Work and Families Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 (Commencement, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015
These Regulations were made on 2/3/15 and provide for The Department for Employment and Learning in exercising their powers under the Work and Families Act (NI) 2015 to detail which components of the legislation will commence on 15/3/15 for the purposes of making regulations and enabling the parents of children expected to be born or placed for adoption from 5/4/15 to avail of shared parental leave and pay and associated entitlements for working parents (see Statutory Rules below – eg SR’s 95-103).
New Hybrid Working Guide Offers Timely Support to Employers
To coincide with the easing of Covid restrictions and anticipated lifting of the ‘work from home’ recommendation, a new guide offering NI employers the most up-to-date advice on ‘Hybrid Working’ has been launched by the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) for Northern Ireland.
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.
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.
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.
The Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020
These Regulations and Rules of Procedure establish requirements in relation to proceedings before industrial tribunals (ITs) and the Fair Employment Tribunal (FET). They revoke and replace earlier regulations and rules which separately dealt with these tribunals. The 2020 Regulations provide a revised and consolidated text for the rules and procedures of the industrial tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal while simplifying language and structure, being consistent with better regulation principles. The 2020 Regulations also take account of the introduction of Early Conciliation; in particular setting out the implications arising from the adherence, or non-adherence, to the requirements of Early Conciliation.