Plan to overhaul Northern Ireland employment law ‘does not go far enough'
Susan Fitzgerald said the Good Jobs Bill was 'far from a revolutionary document' and the implementation of the legislation involves a long transitional period.
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Last week, Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald said the 'ambitious' proposals in the Bill included tackling zero-hour contracts, improvements to family-related leave and strengthened rights for trade unions.
I set out my Good Jobs proposals this week - the biggest upgrade to our employment legislation since the GFA.
Good to have the chance to talk to
@MarkCarruthers7
on
@bbctheview
yesterday about how the ambitious proposals will benefit both workers and employers.
Catch up👇🏻
https://t.co/MZW4iGppkz
— Caoimhe Archibald MLA (@CArchibald_SF)
May 2, 2025
The proposals also aimed to enhance protections for agency workers, ensure tips were passed on to staff in full and introduce easier access to flexible working arrangements.
Ms Fitzgerald, Unite Ireland regional secretary, said the union is discussing the minister's proposals with union representatives and activists.
'We will be guided by the discussions we have with workers, who will be on the receiving end or otherwise of the proposals,' she told BBC NI's Sunday Politics show.
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'I suppose our point is it's far from a revolutionary document, to be fair, where it doesn't go far enough from a trading perspective, or hasn't addressed at all.
'But there's no question that, you just take a sample of some of the items – tips, flexible working opportunities, neonatal leave and pay for pregnant workers, protections against unfair redundancy for pregnant workers, movement on zero hour contracts, movement on fire and rehire – I actually don't know how anyone can disagree with any of those areas.
'I think one of the key things for us now is what are – in some cases mostly just headlines – is getting behind the detail of what we need to see implemented.
'But I have to say an area of concern is – maybe it's an attempt to reassure people – but it's the proposal to have what feels like a long transition period, and presumably that would only commence after the process has gone through Stormont. That's not good enough.
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'It's actually unconscionable to say to someone, we know your rights are not currently protected, we know you're not currently being treated with respect, You're currently very vulnerable, but bear with, we don't want to scare the horses.'
Suzanne Wylie, chief executive of NI Chamber, said that a 'very complex' set of regulations of codes of practice are being proposed.
'It is, as the minister has said, the biggest overhaul in employment law in decades, and so our businesses across Northern Ireland really need to be prepared for that,' she said.
'There's a lot in these, and this is really about putting right these proposals. There's a lot more to the creation of good jobs than just aspect of employee rights.'
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Ms Wylie said that similar legislation is going through Westminster, which is estimated to cost businesses some £5 billion.
'If we think about the challenges that businesses here are facing at this point with increases in tax, increases in minimum wage, living wage, etc, AI, that's disrupting how we work our days, the cost of energy, etc. Really, really challenging time for business.
'We really do have to think about how these proposals are going to be implemented, and how that balance will be achieved between ensuring that we have viable businesses that can grow and a growing economy that we can really create good jobs for the future.'
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Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Reform chairman David Bull: ‘We cannot be the Nigel Farage show'
Dr David Bull is run ragged in his new job as chair of Reform UK. I say he looks trim; he dissents. 'I have put on so much weight, really – absolutely ridiculous.' Nigel Farage has asked him to tour the associations, which means sleeping in hotels, dinner in pubs. 'I get to see real people in their environment… When one sits in one's bubble in London, you just don't understand the level of anger or frustration or upset about what's going on politically, and I hear that particularly when people have had a couple of pints.' A man who likes a party is now trying to build one. It will, he says, require teamwork, less ego and cannot be 'the Nigel Farage show'. The central party has had a 'disconnect' with the grass roots; democracy must bloom. Reform needs to operate in the centre-ground, appeal to different parts of society, focus on delivery. Things might be said that people don't want to hear, for instance on transgender rights. A bubbly blond with an electric car, wearing a wild blue shirt,Bull is an odd fit for Right-wing politics. He made his name as a TV doctor; I can remember him in the Nineties with curtained hair, giving advice on acne. Since his Reform appointment, memories have been jogged that he also hosted a ghost hunt that led to a violent altercation with a medium. Behind the scenes, however, he has played a serious role in the populist revolution, aided by his energy and charm. Reform's name, he says, was decided in this very house: 'either on this part of the sofa or in the kitchen'. The house is a converted barn in deepest Suffolk, down a lane marked by a sign that reads 'Cats Cross, Please Slow Down'. British and Suffolk flags flutter on his lawn. 'You may think it's lovely and leafy and sunny,' he advises, 'which it is, but actually rural crime is a huge problem. Local chatter is, these are a lot of immigrants who are here, nicking farm machinery. People go around nicking yer oil.' And don't get him started on Ed Miliband. 'Imagine heating this house with a heat pump… None of this lot from Islington has been to the country.' Bull was born in 1969, in Farnborough hospital, Kent (as was Nigel Farage, five years earlier). The family moved to Suffolk when he was four. Father Richard was an insurance broker working in Ipswich. Mother Pauline was a medical secretary-turned-homemaker. His father has since died, but his mother lives just 'five miles away', his brother, Anthony, is 'down the road' and his sister, Katie, 'is next door'. Various nephews and nieces 'call me when they hate their parents. I'm that kind of ridiculous uncle, right? They'll tell me things they would never tell their parents.' Bull attended the independent Framlingham College and studied medicine at Imperial College, graduating in the early 1990s, with degrees in medicine, surgery and science. As a junior doctor he was 'quite militant', after all he 'was doing a hundred hours a week or whatever… Got £17,000 for it.' But he feels the current British Medical Association 'has become a nasty, super Left-wing union'. Bull rattles off their recent pay increases: 'Tell me another job that gets that?' 'I went to various tower blocks,' to see various patients, 'and no one spoke English.' Critical of immigration, a fan of US President Donald Trump, he feels more must be done to enforce integration: 'All we've done is to pacify [a multicultural society] by having signs in multiple languages in hospital. I'm sorry, no: we'll speak English. If you come to this country and if you are legally allowed to come to this country, you learn English. You subscribe to British values, and that includes not wearing a burka.' Aside from healing, he was 'always obsessed with television', and took his first media steps via modelling. Was it clean? 'Of course it was clean! It was shampoo commercials.' An agent followed: Bull's first TV gig, in 1995, was giving health tips for a travel show on Sky. A meeting with John Craven landed him a job on Newsround ('I ended up doing Saturday mornings with an aardvark called Otis'). His list of credits is extraordinary, including kids' talk show Sort It!, Watchdog, Watchdog Healthcheck. Then he did Tomorrow's World in 2002 to 2003. 'I killed that,' he says. 'I was the last presenter of that.' He wrote books on teenage health, established a PR company, campaigned to put fruit on Virgin trains, was a ubiquitous presence on morning chat shows and met the Royal family. Prince Philip 'had the most brilliant sense of humour. I remember one day when we were in Buckingham Palace' – for the Duke of Edinburgh awards – 'and he came in and he looked at me and said, 'Not you again.' And I said, 'Well I could say the same for you, sir.' He loved that kind of sparring.' On another occasion, the Queen asked him the secret of a long life after he'd had 'three or four glasses of champagne'. He replied: 'You're doing pretty well without me.' There was a deathly silence. 'I thought I've either played this really well or it's a disaster. And she laughed.' All very interesting, but what I really want to hear about is Most Haunted Live!, the interactive paranormal show he fronted from 2002 to 2005. 'Outta 30 years' [career], you've chosen that one?' he asks with mock surprise. Shortly after he was appointed Reform chair, Bull was asked by Richard Madeley on Good Morning Britain if he believes in ghosts. 'I said, 'Look, things happen I can't explain.' And [he] said, 'What?' Now, I had a split second judgment to decide. Do I say, I'll tell you over dinner? Or do I launch in, full-throated – which was a foolish move, but I did.' Bull then recalled that after one edition of Most Haunted Live, relaxing in a hotel, the psychic Derek Acorah had told him his late grandmother was present in the room: then 'his face changed, he jumped on top of me and he tried to strangle me'. Bouncers pulled Acorah off. The next day, Acorah apologised and explained that when talking to Bull's grandmother, an 'evil spirit' had possessed him. I ask: 'Is there a part of you that thinks he was looking for an excuse to jump on you and strangle you?' 'Sure.' He admits: 'I must sound like a complete fruit loop.' But in the end the joke was on Madeley. A poll revealed that a plurality of Reform supporters believe in the paranormal, 'so there's a splash on one of the newspapers saying, David Bull is on the money'. Bull's transition to politics began at a drinks reception in the mid 2000s. 'There were various MPs around, and I was having a go at them and saying: 'None of you ever do anything and you're all useless.' And one of them said to me: 'Well, why don't you do it?' And I thought, right, I will then, 'cos I like a challenge.' David Cameron put Bull on his A-list of parliamentary candidates and he was chosen to fight Brighton Pavilion, though he pulled out a year before the 2010 election. His father was terminally ill, so he returned to Suffolk. He was asked instead to head a Conservative review on sexual health. Bull left a mark in Brighton by attending Pride in a t-shirt that read 'I've come out... I'm a Tory'. He is openly gay: is it easier to be homosexual than Right-wing? 'Yeah, hundred per cent,' in fact, 'being gay is a bit dull. Pride has kind of fulfilled what it's set out to do, which was to grant true equality.' With that battle won, he says some lobby groups 'are going after a whole new group' in a bid for relevance – ie transgender people – 'talking to kids who are not fully formed emotionally, intellectually, sexually, and persuading them that maybe they're not happy in their own body.' He empathises with the youngsters: 'you won't believe this but as a child, I was shy and… I was bullied really badly at school, and I was fat.' That's all part of 'growing up', and we shouldn't rush to 'medicalise'. I note that Vanessa Frake, a former prison governor who has joined Reform, has said that there shouldn't be a blanket ban on trans-women in female prisons, causing confusion over what the party thinks. 'It's not party policy: we believe there are two biological sexes, that actually male prisoners are in one prison and female prisoners are in another.' But then he adds that Frake 'made quite an interesting point. What happens if you fully transitioned? If you've got female parts but are biologically a man, where do you put them?' The obvious answer is 'they should be in their own prison'. But we can't do that, so 'that's why she said it needs to be done on a case by case basis, and that's why everyone's gone absolutely ape over the whole thing'. As to Frake's argument, he says: 'I don't think it is unreasonable but it's not what people want to hear.' He is 'fiscally conservative' yet 'socially liberal': one of his first encounters with Farage was in 2014, when he criticised the then Ukip leader for saying the NHS shouldn't treat migrants with HIV. 'I may or may not have written on Twitter [now X], after a drink, that he was an idiot.' So it came as a surprise in 2019 when he received a call from Farage – 'who I'd never met' – to say, 'I want you to stand for the European Parliament: right now.' For the north-west, rather than his home in Suffolk, where candidates were needed. Bull, who was enthusiastically pro-Brexit, won and served a few bizarre months in Brussels. 'I can see why the MEPs love it because you get paid really well. You only have to sign in, you don't have to do anything for the money.' Plus, 'you get a car to drive you everywhere'. In the 2019 general election, he stood in Sedgefield, placing third; in 2021, he ran in the London Assembly, coming fifth in City and East. With Boris Johnson as prime minister, Britain left the EU, and 'the Brexit Party was put on ice because it was a single issue party'. Nevertheless, Bull had become friends with Richard Tice, doing Tice's chat show out of the studio Bull had built next door to the barn: a small group decided to launch Reform to keep the populist flame burning. Farage returned for the general election of 2024, in which Bull ran for Suffolk West and took 20 per cent, and today the party polls north of 30 per cent across much of the country. Reform might be doing even better but for a series of internal rows that culminated in Zia Yusuf, the previous chair, criticising an anti-burka Reform MP and then agreeing to step aside. Yusuf did an 'amazing job' setting up 400 branches, he says, but 'it burnt him out', so Farage called Bull and asked him to take over. The role has been split in two, administration and team building, with Bull leading the latter as Reform expands and democratises. 'There's been a big disconnect I think in the past between the professional party in London and the people who do all the hard work knocking on doors and volunteering and all that dreadful stuff.' Bull travels the country 'rallying the troops'. Paul Nuttall, a past leader of Ukip, has joined as a more backstage vice-chair to take care of candidates. 'Ultimately, Nigel trusts me [because] I'm a team player.' I wonder if any of the splits that have happened have hurt? Rupert Lowe MP walked away, so did Ben Habib, a former co-leader of Reform whom Bull clearly likes. 'I have a lot of time for both of them actually. I think with Rupert, he's a really effective MP from what I understand. But I assume there's a clash of personalities.' Farage and Lowe are 'strong characters', both 'used to working for themselves'. Bull declares: 'I haven't got time for big egos.' How does he work with Farage then? 'He's the most effective orator and brilliant political mind I have ever met. If I say to him, I want you to speak for 45 minutes, he will speak for 45 minutes and zero seconds… without notes. And he's developed techniques to do that. But if we are seriously growing this to be a party of government, then we have to have a team. You cannot have the Nigel Farage show.' Bull continues: 'He's mellowing… He knows he has to build this party and – he has said this – it can no longer be about him.' It's an impression others share: I'm told Farage looked upon Yusuf with almost parental affection, and found the attacks on his character and ethnicity repellent. When Bull confided to him that he found reading his own Twitter feed demoralising, Farage replied: 'Just don't read it.' In an ideal world, would Habib and Lowe be in Reform? 'I don't think either would come back. It's a bit like a family when you've fallen out.' I suggest they're also going down a rabbit hole in their obsession with Islam and immigration. 'Remember,' says Bull, 'politics is won and lost in the centre-ground. It always has been.' Reform is about 'common sense' rather than ideology, and now that it is actually winning, it mustn't over-promise. 'One of the things that I'm really keen to impress upon our councillors – we've got 864 now – is that we absolutely have to deliver in those councils that we control because unless we can show that we're effective at local government, then people won't trust us when it comes to national government. Nigel can't do it as a one-man band, and he knows it.' Will Bull run for parliament again? 'It's hard blinking work doing that. Yes is the answer, but I'm a great believer you need affinity with the constituency that you stand for. Right? I hate people being parachuted in and I think people hate it when it happens.' He runs through the possible places – Kent, East Anglia – 'this area, central Suffolk, which is currently [represented by] Patrick Spencer'. I silently note that Spencer is on trial for sexual assault (he has denied wrongdoing); a by-election is possible. 'Might I be talking to a future health secretary?' 'Maybe. I mean, there's a lot of ifs in there, aren't there?' Bull is single. I say I'm surprised, he replies, 'So am I. Such a catch! Oh, you are kind. But it's very difficult, isn't it? And particularly given what I do now. A) I don't have very much time, as you can imagine, and B) Where do I meet anyone? I would need to date someone who likes politics,' preferably who shares his own: 'I would struggle to date someone who's uber Left-wing, for example.' He has learnt 'how lonely this job is'. He laughs, 'I'm staying in a Premier Inn' – the same one, so often that 'they've been giving me a free breakfast'. The realisation dawns: 'I am Alan Partridge!' I sense that in discovering Reform, Bull has found an even bigger family for whom he can play the fun uncle. 'I wouldn't say I'm like Nigel, but when I go into these places, there's whoops and hollers, and people are thrilled that I'm there. I'll give a speech and there's either a standing ovation or people are really moved by what I'm saying. And what I'm saying is nothing clever, it's just reaffirming their own views, I think.'
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Tories and Reform decry two-tier justice as suspended Labour councillor cleared
Conservative and Reform politicians have decried what they call 'two-tier justice' after a suspended Labour councillor who called for far-right activists' throats to be cut was found not guilty of encouraging violent disorder. Ricky Jones, 58, faced trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court accused of the offence after he described demonstrators as 'disgusting Nazi fascists' at an anti-racism rally in the wake of the Southport murders. He was cleared on Friday. Nigel Farage and shadow home secretary Chris Philp both pointed to the idea of 'two-tier justice' in relation to the case. Mr Philp compared the case to that of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed after she posted a tweet calling for 'mass deportation' and 'set fire to all the f****** hotels' on the day of the Southport attacks last year. In a post on X, Mr Philp said: 'The development of two tier justice is becoming increasingly alarming.' Ex-Reform chairman Zia Yusuf also referred to Connolly's case, and said that 'two tier justice in this country is out of control'. Connolly pleaded guilty last year to a charge of inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing 'threatening or abusive' written material on X, which meant she did not face a trial. In Jones' case, a jury deliberated for just over half an hour before they found him not guilty. A video showing Jones addressing crowds on Hoe Street in Walthamstow, east London, on August 7 last year went viral on social media after the protest, which had been organised in response to plans for a far-right march outside Waltham Forest Immigration Bureau. The suspended councillor said in the clip: 'They are disgusting Nazi fascists. We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all.' He also drew his finger across his throat as he spoke to the crowd. Jurors deliberated for just over 30 minutes and found him not guilty on Friday. Jones, who wore a navy blue suit with a white shirt and pale pink tie in the dock, was seen mouthing 'thank-you' at the jurors. Family and supporters hugged each other before Jones, who declined to comment on the verdict, was driven out of the court grounds in a car. The 58-year-old, who at the time was also employed as a full-time official for the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) union, was arrested on August 8 last year and interviewed at Brixton police station that night. Jones, who has been a borough councillor in Dartford, Kent, since 2019, was suspended by Labour the day after the incident. It is understood that a party investigation remains ongoing, and its outcome will decide what happens to his membership. A spokesperson for the party said at the time that his behaviour 'was completely unacceptable and it will not be tolerated'. Giving evidence in his trial, Jones said his comment did not refer to far-right protesters involved in the riots at the time, but to those who had reportedly left National Front stickers on a train with razor blades hidden behind them. Before he made the comment, jurors were shown video where he said to crowds: 'You've got women and children using these trains during the summer holidays. 'They don't give a shit about who they hurt.' He told the court he was 'appalled' by political violence, adding: 'I've always believed the best way to make people realise who you are and what you are is to do it peacefully.'
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Poll: Trump's crime approval rating soars past Biden
By Published: | Updated: Donald Trump's approval rating is currently higher than former President Joe Biden's when it comes to crime, CNN's senior political data reporter has revealed. In fact, the gap between the two was so big, Harry Enten used a Michael Jordan analogy to convey how the conservative was leagues above his predecessor when it came to their handling of the issue 'I think this sort of gives the game away here, because Donald Trump is like Air Jordan towering over Joe Biden when it comes to their handling of crime,' Enten said on Thursday's NewsCentral, referring to the iconic Nike sneakers named after the basketball star. The data-driven sermon came days after Trump's federal takeover of the police force in Washington DC over a disturbing slew of violent crimes in the capital. The figures showed Trump's net approval rating for crime sitting at +1 for his second term as of August, in contrast to the -13 he secured during his first. Biden, after one term, had a favorability of -26 points. Enten could not help but marvel at the 27 point gap between the two. 'I think that Democrats have to get it around their heads that Americans are far more hawkish on crime than they think that are,' he told Dana Bash. 'Where was he last year? He was way underwater at minus 13 points,' Enten continued. 'Americans view Trump far more favorably now on crime than they did a year ago.' ' Crime is one of Trump's best issues. It's one of the reasons why he wants to talk about crime because it favors him.' Enten then explained how the poll did not take into account 'what's exactly happening in DC right now,' but was still conducted after Trump deployed the National Guard to quash protests against ICE in LA. 'And Americans, for the most part, actually view Trump favorably,' Enten said, speaking from a national perspective. 'It'll be very interesting when you can see polling that what's happening right now settling in,' Bash, the network's chief political correspondent, observed. Enten responded with the 'Air Jordan analogy,' using it to convey what he saw as a clear consensus from Americans across the country 'Americans vastly prefer Donald Trump's approach to crime than they did to Joe Biden's,' he concluded, ogling the 27 point gap. 'And again, I think it gets back to the point that Americans are far more hawkish on crime than a lot of Democrats want to admit.' Enten added how Biden's score served as a reminder that crime was 'one' of the Democrat's 'worst issues.' 'Granted, pretty much every issue was one of Biden's worst issues,' he added. Many Democrats and liberals have expressed outrage over Trump's federal takeover from DC. Their criticisms have ranged from accusations of anti-black racism to claims Trump is acting like an authoritarian dictator. Statistics show crime has fallen in DC over the last year. But the capital is still plagued with violent lawlessness - much of it perpetrated by teenagers. Some liberal commenters have said many of their left-leaning friends are secretly happy about what Trump is doing and excited by the prospect of safer streets. Former MSNBC star Chris Matthews said his friends in the city won't walk more than three blocks from their homes after dark. Back on CNN, Enten also pointed to another poll, from May of this year, that showed Republicans' approach to quashing crime as a party were favored by Americans nationwide by an almost-as-impressive 16 points. 'They actually gained ground on crime. They were maintaining their edge and actually added a little bit to it,' Enten said. 'So Republicans in the House, Republicans in the Senate, they absolutely want to be talking about crime. 'The more they feel that we are talking about crime, the better they feel that electoral landscape is for them,' he concluded. Trump, on Monday, justified his takeover of the municipality by declaring a 'crime emergency'. Troops arrived there on Tuesday morning. He promised to address crime in the capital and other major cities during his 2024 campaign. The situation remains ongoing.
