Resources

This video provides an overview of our #FlexibleFutures24 conference on 14 March 2024. 

What a great day it was hearing from lots of inspirational speakers with a wealth of evidence about how to make flexible working work!  We are grateful to all our speakers and attendees for making it such a success, and especially to our partners, Timely Careers and the Department for the Economy for the key role they played in making the conference happen.  

In the 7th Podcast in our “Challenging Workplaces” series, we discuss the value of trade unions in the workplace.

LRA Director Mark McAllister, is joined by Nita Clarke OBE, Director of the Involvement & Participation Association (IPA), Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers Union (UTU) and Clare Moore, Equality and Social Affairs Officer with the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (NIC ICTU).

The Labour Relations Agency, in partnership with Timely Careers, and supported by the Department for the Economy, will host #FlexibleFutures24, a conference examining the case for flexible working, on Thursday 14 March 2024 in Stranmillis College, Belfast.

This guide has been developed in partnership with the Northern Ireland Committee for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (NIC-ICTU).  It has been endorsed by Women in Business. The guide is designed for employers, employees and their representatives and aims to help eradicate sexual harassment from the workplace.

In the ever-evolving landscape of the modern workplace, it's crucial to understand how to effectively manage and address grievances. Whether you're an employee, a manager, or an HR professional, having a solid grasp of the grievance process is essential for maintaining a healthy and productive work environment.

In this webinar, we'll explore the following key areas:

• Understanding the legislative framework underpinning workplace grievances in Northern Ireland.
• Awareness of general principles supporting an effective procedure.
• The process for handling grievances.
• Dealing with common issues that may arise.

Hybrid working is one of the biggest drivers of change for organisations in the UK and Ireland. We are joined by leading HR practitioner, thinker and author, Gary Cookson and Ana Desmond, Senior Economist at the University of Ulster, and co-author of recent research "Is remote working, working?", to discuss how organisations should approach the topic, and ways they can get it working for them.       

There has been a noticeable drift back to the workplace following the pandemic, with the proportion of NI employees working remotely for some of the time falling from 41% in April 2020 to 17%.  Ironically, even Zoom has recently decided to bring its staff back to the office for at least part of the week.

With this in mind, CIPD NI and the Labour Relations Agency ran a webinar on 16 October 2023 to take stock of the HR profession’s  experience of hybrid working to date.  CIPD NI Branch Chair Nicola Barber hosted the event, and we were joined by an expert panel comprising:
 

•      Ulster University Economist Ana Desmond, co-author of ‘Is remote working, working?’ – research into remote working patterns in NI, published in August 2023;

•      Leading HR practitioner and thinker Gary Cookson, author of ‘HR for Hybrid Working’ published in June 2022; and,

•      Caroline Samia from the Labour Relations Agency.

The event was recorded, and is now available to view below. The slide deck used during the event is also available for download.

This short webinar provides a whistle-stop tour of basic employment rights relevant to young people starting out on their employment journey.

This short webinar focuses on legal rights, types of maternity leave, how pay is calculated, maternity discrimination, returning to work and breastfeeding.

This short webinar provides a whistle-stop tour of pregnancy at work. It covers notification, arranging cover, health and safety, antenatal care, pregnancy discrimination and returning to work. 

This webinar aims to help employers understand their duties and responsibilities and to promote good employment practice. It includes an overview of the statutory flexible working process from employee request, the right of accompaniment, the right of appeal through to communication of the final decision. 

Recent research has estimated the cost of workplace conflict for employers in Northern Ireland to be £851 million per year.

For the fifth podcast in our series on "Challenging Workplaces", we are joined by one of the authors of the research, Professor Richard Saundry from Westminster University, along with Nicola Barber, Chair of CIPD Northern Ireland, and our own Director of Employment Services, Mark McAllister, to discuss the topic and how managerial capability could help reduce these costs.