TEMPLATE LOBBYING LETTER
Dear MLA,
I am contacting you to ask you urgently act to ensure the NI Executive releases the Good Jobs Bill (GJB) for consideration and passage through the Assembly’s legislative process.
Despite more than 8 in 10 voters here backing the Bill, it now appears to be blocked at the behest of business lobby groups, who have consistently sought to delay, obfuscate and misrepresent key elements of this legislation.
It is the default of the business lobby to oppose any improvements to workers’ rights. Thirty years ago they opposed the national minimum wage claiming it would lead to jobs losses and damage the economy. It is how they always react.
Trade unions have engaged in good faith discussion on this bill for over two years now. They met with businesses and their representatives repeatedly, sought common ground. The ambition of trade unions was however bigger than any single piece of legislation. They want a new era of economic cooperation, where all stakeholders work together to build something better for everyone by removing unnecessary friction from the workplace.
The proposals consulted upon for inclusion in the GJB are not radical. They simply afford vulnerable and precarious workers here basic protections, improved work/life balance and strengthening workers’ voices through trade union representation for the benefit of workers, employers and the economy.
These legal rights will be ineffective without union access, as tribunals are too complex and burdensome for vulnerable and precarious workers. Unions help ensure access to rights in practice, and evidence shows unions benefit society, business, and the economy.
All the proposals for the Bill already exist in some form for workers elsewhere across these islands. Why are we being denied them?
Consultations on the GJB have been ongoing since April 2024 when the proposed policy contents were published. No other employment rights Bill in NI has received such scrutiny. The Employment Rights Act (UK) 2025 commenced six months after the GJB, was bigger than the GJB, and still became law last December.
The Executive has had the Bill weeks before they discussed it on 28th May and yet, they have still not released it to the Assembly. The failure of the NI Executive to agree the GJB’s passage to the Assembly for democratic discussion and scrutiny is deeply concerning. Any further delay by the Executive may leave insufficient time to complete the legislative scrutiny process before the current Assembly term ends.
I call on you to publicly demand the immediate publication of the Good Jobs Bill and vote to ensure that the current Assembly passes these basic workers’ rights into effect.
