DUP offers to back Sinn Féin jobs Bill if trade union access provisions removed

The DUP has offered to sign off on many aspects of Sinn Féin’s flagship employment rights Bill if the party separates them off from proposals around trade union access.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said if Sinn Féin Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald was prepared to “spilt the Bill” and create two pieces of legislation – one on general employment rights and the other specifically on provisions related to trade unions – then his party would approve the former immediately while continuing to scrutinise and seek consensus on the latter.

He rejected Sinn Féin’s claim that the DUP’s refusal to green-light the Good Jobs Bill through the Executive and onto the floor of the Assembly was denying people key new rights, such as access to paid leave for parents whose babies require neonatal care.

A Bill tabled by an Executive minister can only begin its legislative passage through the Assembly once it is signed off by Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill and DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

Mr Robinson said his party fully supported the proposal for paid neonatal care, as well as other provisions in Ms Archibald’s Bill, and said Ms Little-Pengelly would be prepared to use emergency procedures to pass those through the Executive either later on Monday or on Tuesday, as long as the contentious trade union aspects were not included and instead siphoned off into a stand-alone Bill.

The DUP has raised concerns about a provision of the current Bill that would allow trade unions the “right to request” access to workplaces to meet workers.

Ms Archibald has already moved to exempt businesses with fewer than 10 employees from this provision.

But the DUP has said it retains significant concerns over the trade union elements of the Bill, claiming some of the proposals lack detail.

Mr Robinson and Ms Little-Pengelly outlined their suggested way forward on two distinct pieces of legislation as they spoke to reporters at Stormont on Monday.

“There will be an offer today that if Sinn Féin are prepared to split the Bill, we will advance as quickly as possible those aspects that we agree and will continue to work on those issues that we do not,” Mr Robinson said.

He added: “We are willing to progress the bits in which there is agreement.

“Last week, we all had to suffer the nonsense of hearing how we were blocking neonatal rights. We never would, and we won’t, and we can see a pathway for those neonatal rights today.”

Ms Little-Pengelly said the Bill represented the “most aggressive and expansionist attempt anywhere, not only in the UK and Ireland, but indeed across the European Union, in relation to trade union access”.

The DUP deputy First Minister said there had been an “aggressive attempt to bounce and bully” her into agreeing a piece of “half-baked” legislation.

Ms Little-Pengelly said the Economy Minister needed to build a consensus around the trade union proposals.

“She can split the Bill, move forward with those issues that she’s been attempting to emotionally manipulate in relation to neonatal care – of course we’re supportive of that, of course we are,” the DUP MLA said.

“So she has a choice, she can move forward today, bring that forward to us and, of course, I will agree that in the Executive in terms of the neonatal care, and there’s of course a range of other issues where there is consensus as well.

“But, of course, on the trade union access, there is no consensus out there, and more work needs to be done.”

In response, Ms Archibald said she was not prepared to leave any workers behind.

“My Good Jobs Bill provides important rights for all workers,” she said.

“I won’t be leaving anyone behind.”

The minister’s predecessor Conor Murphy first outlined plans for major reforms of Northern Ireland’s employment laws in 2024.

When Ms Archibald set out the main proposals she intended to include in the Bill in April 2025, she described it as the “biggest upgrade to our employment legislation since the Good Friday Agreement”.

The Bill was circulated to ministers at Stormont earlier this year but Ms Little-Pengelly has refused to sign it off, saying certain aspects, including the trade union provisions, require further scrutiny.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) criticised the DUP proposal.

ICTU assistant general secretary Gerry Murphy said: “So, after weeks of prevarication, the DUP have finally shown their hand this morning.

“The response has been to turn their back on a million working people in seeking to split this Bill.

“Our position remains the same.

“Let the Bill go to the Assembly.

“Let’s have the debate – what are they afraid of?”