Sinn Fein jobs bill 'drives a wedge between workers and their bosses' says DUP leader Gavin Robinson
The leader of the DUP has attacked Sinn Fein’s employment rights bill, saying it will divide employers and employees.
Gavin Robinson suggested that the bill will “drive investment away and cost Northern Ireland jobs”.
A day earlier, deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly had said while “there are many proposals within this that’s very positive”, they needed to “take the time to scrutinise it carefully”.
Mr Robinson’s remarks today are tougher, saying the bill “risks undermining economic growth and damaging confidence among employers across Northern Ireland”.
He said: “Good law is built on consensus.
"Yet what Sinn Fein have brought forward in this draft Employment Rights Bill drives a wedge between employer and employee at the very moment Northern Ireland needs both working together.
"That is no foundation upon which we grow our economy, attract investment or create opportunity.
"Northern Ireland needs more good jobs and better jobs - but that only happens when government works with business, not against it.
"Sinn Fein now want the DUP to simply stand aside and wave this legislation through the Executive in its current form. We will not do that.”
The bill – described by Sinn Fein as the 'Good Jobs' Employment Rights Bill – has yet to actually be published.
Sinn Fein says that the DUP is blocking it from being laid before the Assembly.
Mr Robinson said that the economy minister Caoimhe Archibald has been working on the bill for the last two years, and suddenly “Sinn Fein now demand approval in just 24 days for one of the most significant pieces of employment legislation in decades”.
This is a reference to how long ago Sinn Fein tried to table it at the Executive.
He added: “Sinn Fein can produce all the slogans they want about ‘good jobs’, but if their policies drive investment away and cost Northern Ireland jobs, workers will see through the rhetoric very quickly.”
Sinn Fein was contacted but had not responded at time of writing.
Outlining what she wants to see in the bill last April, Dr Archibald had said it would include the following:
● Workers on a zero hours contract will also have the right to "reasonable notice of shifts”, and get compensation if shifts are cancelled or curtailed at short notice;
● Closing a “loophole” known as the “Swedish derogation” that permits agency workers to receive less pay than permanent counterparts;
● Ensuring that “tips are passed on to workers in full”;
● Lowering the threshold for recognising a union from 21 employees per business to 10 employees;
● Allowing trade unions to use electronic rather than paper means to ballot for a strike;
● Removing “the current 26-week qualifying period for employees to request flexible working”;
● Giving workers one week of paid “carers’ leave” per year if they have caring responsibilities, and 12 weeks of paid leave for those who have just had babies that require intensive care.