PRESS RELEASE : Northern Ireland Executive must legislate to end exploitation of workers – Jemma Dolan

The press release issued by Sinn Fein on 6 December 2022.

Sinn Féin MLA Jemma Dolan has said a new Executive must legislate to protect workers from exploitation.

The party’s workers rights spokesperson said:

“We need an Executive formed now to legislate to end bogus self-employment which has been used to deny workers their rights over pay, holidays and working hours.

“The latest example of exploitation was laid bare by reports revealing that a number of marketing companies were registering staff as self-employed to deny minimum wages, leaving some workers earning less than 80p an hour over three months.

“This treatment of workers is shameful and I have written to Invest NI to get information on whether it had given business support to companies abusing workers in this way.

“Sinn Féin wants an end to bogus self-employment and that is why we are developing legislation to protect workers from bogus self-employment practices.

“The DUP should end its boycott of the Executive so we can tackle this and ensure workers are guaranteed legal protections on pay, hours and leave entitlements.”