Diana Armstrong: Economy minister must bring a halt to Good Jobs Bill now, before it causes serious and lasting damage
A letter from Diana Armstrong:
The intervention from Northern Ireland's business community over the proposed Good Jobs Bill is a powerful and timely wake up call.
The economy minister must listen and act. The time to halt the Good Jobs Bill is now. This legislation is anti-jobs, anti-growth, and if pushed through in its current form, it will cause serious and lasting damage to our economy.
From hospitality to agri-food, from small family enterprises to our world-leading tech sectors, businesses across Northern Ireland are united in their alarm. That cannot be ignored.
The Ulster Unionist Party will always champion good, high-quality jobs for everyone across Northern Ireland.
But good jobs do not appear through legislation imposed without proper consultation, they are created when business is free to invest, grow, and thrive in a genuinely business friendly environment.
Ending zero-hours contracts without viable alternatives, imposing new layers of union bureaucracy, and heaping compliance costs onto small medium enterprises will not deliver better outcomes for workers. It will deliver fewer jobs, reduced opportunities, and a chilling effect on growth at exactly the wrong time.
NI's private sector is the engine of our economic success and it must be protected, not penalised. I am calling on the economy minister to pause this bill, engage meaningfully with employers and industry, and bring forward reforms that are practical, proportionate, and built on genuine partnership with business. If she refuses, she risks wrecking the very economy she was appointed to build.
Diana Armstrong, UUP economy spokesperson