The Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016
These Regulations consolidate and replace the provisions of the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (the ‘1998 Regulations’) and the ten Statutory Rules which amended it from 1998 to 2009.
A reduction in the administrative burden to employers will be achieved through the consolidation of a number of separate statutory rules into a single set of Regulations. This will make navigation of the provisions of the Regulations easier for users. Readers should be aware that these Regulations do not address many of the outstanding issues associated with working time which have been or are being litigated over, such as – working time rights to paid holidays in cases of long term sickness absence or the calculation of holiday with regard to things such as the inclusion of overtime, commission, bonuses etc. Readers should follow superior court decision developments in the area of working time as these decisions represent the common law position that will not reflect the wording of the actual Regulations. This area of law is complex and case law develops rapidly whilst reform of regulation can be protracted as it is a matter for Member States to agree upon.