Workers Rights Stalled - Stormont Delay Good Jobs Bill

Workers in the north of Ireland are being left at the mercy of the broken Stormont Executive. The Good Jobs Bill - first proposed by Sinn Féin (SF) in 2024 - would implement a range of reforms to workers’ rights, including banning zero hours contracts, protecting tips, and improving the ability of trade unions to approach workers.

Currently, trade union representatives are not allowed to enter workplaces where they do not currently have an agreement.

They are also only allowed to proceed with union recognition where they have at least 21 workers as members - a barrier which disqualifies many workers in small businesses from ever having their union recognised.

However, the bill has faced opposition from the business owners, and from members of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

Business owners say that the removal of zero-hour contracts, and the greater access that would be given to trade unions would affect the viability of small businesses and lead to job losses.

The bill is currently being blocked from leaving the Stormont Executive and being discussed in the Assembly by the DUP. While one political motive for this move could be to stop what could be a positive move for SF in advance of the legislative elections next year, it is clear that the primary motivation for the DUP is protecting the interests of the capitalist class.

As DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly put it: “There are many proposals within this that are positive but the people that create good jobs are businesses and we need to work with them to make sure the balance within this is correct.”

The ability of the DUP to veto the bill gets to the heart of the problem with the post-Good Friday Agreement arrangement – power-sharing in Stormont only seeks to manage the interests of capitalist-imperialism.

Concerns about timelines, implementation or lack of consultation from businesses are bolstered, when in reality what they really fear is the reduced flexibility of labour and increased trade union membership as a result of union representative workplace access.

Following intensive lobbying from business groups, SF has also made a U-turn on its access proposals, now suggesting it will not apply to businesses with less than 10 employees (90% of businesses in the 6 counties).

While SF and the DUP might clash on certain constitutional or cultural questions, on the fundamentals they agree; their allegiance first and foremost is to the capitalist class, and workers have no role in their so-called “power-sharing”. 

However, this in turn highlights a problem within the workers’ movement itself.  Too much rides on measures being handed to it, rather than being strong enough to take them.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Assistant General Secretary for Northern Ireland Gerry Murphy was correct when he said that the measures aren’t “some radical wishlist” but about basic workplace fairness.

A union movement which focused on militantly building density, challenging bosses directly, and empowering its members, rather than lobbying politicians to make changes for them, would very quickly find that the former approach makes the latter redundant.