New employment law plans are 'half-baked' - Little-Pengelly

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has accused Sinn Féin of trying to "bully and bounce her" in to supporting the Good Jobs Bill which aims to overhaul employment laws.

Speaking in the Assembly on Monday, she said the proposed legislation was "half-baked" and had no support among the business community.

However, she did offer to support the bill if Sinn Féin Economy Minister Caomihe Archibald agreed to split the proposed legislation and remove the new trade union rights.

But that plan has been criticised by the unions who have accused the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of "turning their backs" on more than a million workers.

Meanwhile, Archibald said her Good Jobs Bill provided important rights for all workers and she wouldn't "be leaving anyone behind"

Under the proposed bill trade unions would have greater access to workers and employment settings.

Currently, unions generally only have a right to enter a workplace if they are already recognised by the employer.

The bill would give unions a "right to request" access to meet with workers for recruitment and representation.

Access would not be automatic, but employers would not be permitted to "unreasonably" withhold it.

But there has been no agreement around the Executive table in supporting the bill and Sinn Féin has accused the DUP of blocking the legislation which it claims would improve the working conditions of workers across Northern Ireland.

Some of those groups who the party said will benefit include workers on zero hours contracts, carers and parents seeking neonatal leave.

But speaking in the Assembly, the deputy first minister said she would not respond to the "aggressive attempt to bounce her".

On the trade union access clauses in the bill, she said: "These are the most aggressive and expansionist access to trade unions, not just in the UK and Ireland but across the European Union."

"There is not a single business across Northern Ireland which supports the minister's proposals," she added.

But the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said it was "alarmed" by the DUP response to the bill.

In a statement it said suggesting the "bill should be severed before it is even able to reach the assembly floor would be "an affront to workers" and show "blatant disregard for the democratic process"

It added "seeking to gut this bill of its key provisions without presenting any evidence for doing so would fundamentally undermine workers' faith in the devolved institutions".

ICTU chair Gerry Murphy said workers' rights and trade union rights were "flipsides of the same coin".

"The workers' rights aren't worth the paper that they will be written on if there is no one there to vindicate those rights for the workers."

Murphy added that it was essential to have trade union access.

"Anything less is completely unacceptable."