Your Obligations as an Employer in Northern Ireland

Who this guide is for

Employers in Northern Ireland, and managers acting for them, who want to know their main legal duties to employees and workers under Northern Ireland law. It covers:

• Taking someone on: the checks, the insurance, registering as an employer and the written statement.
• Paying staff: the minimum wage, payslips, holiday and sick pay.
• Maternity leave, paternity leave and flexible working requests, in outline.
• Dismissing someone: the statutory dismissal procedure, fair reasons, notice and written reasons.
• Redundancy pay, and consultation when 20 or more redundancies are proposed.
• Health and safety paperwork, right to work checks and workplace pensions.

What this guide does not cover

• Employers in England, Wales or Scotland: see the Great Britain guide.
• Defending an industrial tribunal claim, and time limits in detail: use the tribunal deadline checker.
• Maternity leave and pay in detail: use the maternity pay checker. Handling a flexible working request: use the flexible working checker.
• Changing contracts, and dismissing and re-engaging staff: use the fire and rehire checker.
• Workplace pension duties in detail: use the workplace pension checker. Tax codes: use the tax code checker.
• Reporting accidents, and when a worker can refuse unsafe work: use the health and safety checker. Fire safety law. This guide does not cover it: ask HSENI or your local council.
• Criminal record checks through AccessNI: use the criminal record check checker. The minimum wage in detail: use the minimum wage checker. Zero hours contracts: use the zero hours checker.
• The construction levy: use the CITB levy checker. Company director duties and filing: use the director duties checker.
• Deductions from pay, disputes about sick pay, unpaid parental leave, discrimination, TUPE transfers and how to select people for redundancy. This guide does not cover them: ask the LRA.

The questions that decide the answer

1. Is the person an employee or a worker? Most rights in this guide are for employees. Paid holiday and the minimum wage also cover workers. If you do not know which someone is, use the worker or self-employed checker or ask the LRA.
2. How long have they worked for you without a break? 1 month or more: statutory minimum notice. 26 weeks or more: a statutory flexible working request and paternity leave. 1 year or more: ordinary unfair dismissal. 2 years or more: statutory redundancy pay, and written reasons for dismissal if they ask. No minimum service is needed for a dismissal for an automatically unfair reason.
3. How many people does it affect? 20 or more proposed redundancies at one establishment within 90 days bring in collective consultation and the HR1 notice. With 5 or more employees, your risk assessment findings must be recorded and you should have a written health and safety policy.
4. What happened, and on what date? Most time limits run from the date of the act complained of. Statutory sick pay changed on 6 April 2026.
5. Where do they work? This guide is for Northern Ireland. Most of the Great Britain changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025 do not apply here.

"I'm taking someone on"

• Pay at least the National Minimum Wage.
• Check that the person has the legal right to work in the UK.
• Get employers' liability insurance.
• Give the employee a written statement of their terms (see below).
• Register with HMRC as an employer before you first pay your staff.
• Check whether you must put your staff into a workplace pension.

Right to work checks. The Home Office can fine you up to £45,000 for each illegal worker for a first breach, and up to £60,000 for a repeat breach. You will not have to pay the civil penalty if you can show you made the correct right to work checks before the person started, and any follow-up checks on time. If you get a civil penalty notice, you have 28 days to respond.

Employers' liability insurance. The minimum cover you need is £5 million. You must renew the policy each year and display a valid copy of the certificate where your employees can easily read it. You may display it electronically.

The written statement. If you employ someone for longer than one month, you must give them a written statement of employment particulars within two months of their start date. It must include their pay rate and when they will be paid, their hours, holiday entitlement, where they will work, sick pay arrangements, notice periods, and information about disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Payslips. An employee has the right to an itemised pay statement at or before the time each payment of wages is made.

"Who do I check for right to work, and how?"

From 1 October 2026 right to work checks are not just for employees. You must also check:

• someone on a worker's contract: they do the work themselves and you are not their client or customer;
• an individual sub-contractor: someone you contract to do work that you have agreed to provide to someone else;
• if you run an online matching service, the people you match with customers. An online matching service is a business that keeps a register of service providers, matches them with customers online and charges a fee or commission.

For these three, a civil penalty is only possible where the person started on or after 1 October 2026.

Who you do not check. Someone running their own independent business who deals directly with their customers, such as a self-employed plumber you call out. A client company that contracts with a person's own limited company does not check that person. Calling someone self-employed does not decide it: what counts is how the arrangement works in practice.

Agency staff. The employment business (agency) that takes them on must check them.

How to check. Check everyone the same way, British citizens included, before they start. Use one of: original documents from the Home Office lists; the Home Office online service with a share code; or a right to work digital verification service provider (mainly for British or Irish passports). You cannot insist on one method, except that someone with an eVisa can only prove their right to work online. If the person does not want a check through a digital verification provider, offer to check their original documents instead.

• Online checks use a share code the person gives you, with their date of birth. Share codes start with W and last 90 days. Codes starting with R or S are for other services.
• An expired Biometric Residence Permit is not proof of right to work. Do an online check instead.
• A check by hand needs the original documents in your hands, checked with the person there in person or on a live video call (they can post the originals to you). A photo or scan is not enough, apart from the National Insurance number document below.
• No passport: a UK birth or adoption certificate (short or long) is accepted together with an official document showing the person's name and permanent National Insurance number, issued by a government agency or a previous employer. The birth or adoption certificate must be the original. Only the National Insurance number document can be a digital copy (a screenshot, for example), and only if a government agency issued it. Never ask for passwords.
• Using a digital provider is optional. If you use one, it must be on the government register for right to work checks, and you stay responsible for the check.
• Keep a copy of what you checked, and the date of the check, for as long as the person works for you plus two years. Then destroy it securely.
• If the person's permission to work has an end date, check again on or before that date. No follow-up check is needed for settled status or EU Settlement Scheme status.
• If the person cannot show documents or a share code because a Home Office application, appeal or review is waiting, ask the Home Office Employer Checking Service. A positive answer covers you for six months.

Contract chains, platforms and substitutes (from 1 October 2026). You can be treated as the employer, and fined, even if you do not employ the worker directly, where:

• you are contracted to provide work or services to someone else and use another business's workers to do it;
• you run an online matching service and the provider you matched signs a contract with the customer; or
• your contract lets a worker send a substitute.

This does not apply to a business buying work or services for its own use, such as agency staff in its own factory or a cleaning firm for its own premises. To be protected, these must be in place before the work starts: contract terms with the business you use (they must do the checks, not sub-contract without your written agreement, allow audits and help any Home Office investigation); substitute controls (every substitute is checked before they work, and the check cannot be left to the worker); and identity checks that the person working is the person who was checked (the Home Office recommends at least once in every 24 hours or shift). These steps are needed for contracts entered into on or after 1 October 2026. The business that employs the worker directly still has to do the check.

Discrimination. Treating someone differently in a right to work check because of their race is unlawful under the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. They can claim at an industrial tribunal, and there is normally no upper limit on compensation. Advice: the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (see Where to go for help).

This guide explains the checking rules only. To check whether a person can work, use GOV.UK "Check if someone can work in the UK". For anyone's own visa or immigration status: GOV.UK, the Home Office or a regulated immigration adviser.

"What must I pay?"

The minimum wage is the same across the UK. From 1 April 2026 the hourly rates are:

• Aged 21 and over (the National Living Wage): £12.71.
• Aged 18 to 20: £10.85.
• Under 18: £8.00.
• Apprentices: £8.00, if they are under 19, or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship. An apprentice aged 19 or over who has finished the first year gets the rate for their age.

The rates change on 1 April every year.

Holiday. Workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks' paid annual leave: 28 days for someone who works 5 days a week. The statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days. A part-time worker gets 5.6 times the number of days in their normal working week. Holiday builds up from the first day of work, and when someone leaves you pay them for holiday they have not taken. Paid bank and public holidays can count towards the 5.6 weeks. Northern Ireland has 10 bank and public holidays.

Sick pay. From 6 April 2026, statutory sick pay (SSP) is paid from the first full day of sickness absence, with no waiting days and no minimum earnings. This change applies in Northern Ireland as well as in Great Britain. SSP is £123.25 a week, or 80% of the employee's normal weekly earnings if that is lower.

"An employee wants family leave or to work flexibly"

• Employees are entitled to 52 weeks of Statutory Maternity Leave. They must take 2 weeks of compulsory maternity leave after the birth, or 4 weeks if they work in a factory. For maternity pay, use the maternity pay checker.
• Paternity leave in Northern Ireland still needs 26 weeks of service, and it is 1 week or 2 weeks in a row.
• An employee with 26 weeks' continuous service can make one statutory flexible working request in any 12-month period.
• Within 28 days of getting the request you must either agree to it in writing or meet the employee to discuss it, and then give your decision in writing within 14 days of the meeting. You can only refuse for one or more of 8 business grounds, and you must explain in writing why they apply. The employee can appeal within 14 days.

"I want to dismiss someone"

An employee needs at least 1 year of continuous employment to claim ordinary unfair dismissal in Northern Ireland.

The potentially fair reasons are capability or qualifications, conduct, redundancy, a legal duty or restriction that stops the person doing the job, and some other substantial reason. You must also show that you acted reasonably and carried out a fair procedure.

The statutory dismissal procedure. The LRA says employers must follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure as a minimum if they are considering dismissing an employee. It has three steps:

1. A written statement to the employee of the grounds for the action you are considering, with an invitation to a meeting.
2. A meeting to discuss it, and your decision.
3. The chance to appeal.

If the procedure applies and you do not follow it, the dismissal will normally be automatically unfair. You should also follow the LRA Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, which an industrial tribunal takes into account.

No minimum service is needed where the reason is automatically unfair, such as whistleblowing, pregnancy, raising a health and safety concern, or the employee using or trying to use one of their legal employment rights. A dismissal because of disability, race, sex, age, religion or another protected reason is a discrimination claim under Northern Ireland's own equality laws, and needs no minimum service.

Notice. Whatever the contract says, you must give at least the statutory minimum notice: 1 week if the employee has been continuously employed for between 1 month and 2 years, then 1 week for each complete year, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. A fixed-term contract ends automatically without notice on its end date.

Written reasons. An employee with 2 years' continuous employment who asks for a written statement of the reasons for their dismissal must get it within fourteen days of the request. An employee dismissed while pregnant, or in circumstances where maternity or adoption leave ends because of the dismissal, is entitled to written reasons without asking and whatever their length of service.

"I need to make redundancies"

Statutory redundancy pay needs at least 2 years of continuous employment: half a week's pay for each full year of service aged 21 and under, 1 week's pay for each full year aged 22 to 40, and 1.5 weeks' pay for each full year aged 41 and above. No more than 20 years can be counted.

For redundancies from 6 April 2026, a week's pay is capped at £783 and the most statutory redundancy pay can be is £23,490. You must tell the employee in writing how you worked it out.

Speak to each person at risk about why they have been selected and about alternatives to redundancy. If this does not happen, a redundancy dismissal may be unfair, and unfair selection for redundancy is unfair dismissal.

20 or more redundancies. A collective redundancy is when you plan to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within a 90-day period. You must consult trade union representatives or elected employee representatives. If the employees choose not to elect representatives, you must give the information directly to each person.

Consultation must start when you are developing the proposals, and at least 30 days before the first redundancy where 20 to 99 are proposed, or at least 90 days before the first redundancy where 100 or more are proposed.

You must also complete the online form HR1, which the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) collects for the Department for the Economy: at least 30 days before the first dismissal for 20 to 99, or at least 90 days before for 100 or more. Send a copy to the representatives you are consulting. Failing to notify without good cause can lead to prosecution and a fine.

If you do not consult properly, an industrial tribunal can make a protective award of up to 90 days' pay for each employee covered.

"Health and safety"

All employers must assess the risks at work and put sensible measures in place to control them. Businesses with 5 or more employees must record the significant findings of their risk assessment, and should have a written health and safety policy.

You must display the Health and Safety Law Poster, or give your staff a pocket card instead.

If an injury at work keeps an employee off work for over 3 days, you must send form NI2508 to the enforcing authority, and you must keep records of injuries, accidents and work-related diseases.

"Do I have to provide a pension?"

Automatic enrolment works the same way in Northern Ireland as in Great Britain. You must put a worker into a workplace pension automatically, and pay into it, if they are aged 22 or over and under State Pension age, earn more than £10,000 a year with you, and usually work in the UK.

In most schemes, contributions are worked out on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year. The legal minimum is 8% in total, including at least 3% from you. You must not encourage or force anyone to opt out. If someone opts out, you must put them back in about every 3 years if they still qualify. The Pensions Regulator covers Northern Ireland too.

"What happens if someone complains?"

Before most claims, the employee must notify the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) for early conciliation. It is free. If they notify the LRA within their time limit, the clock stops for up to 1 calendar month while conciliation takes place, plus up to 14 more days if both sides agree.

Claims go to an industrial tribunal. Most must be made within 3 months less 1 day of the act complained of, including unfair dismissal and discrimination.

Deadlines you must meet

• Written statement: within two months of the employee starting work.
• Payslips: at or before each payment of wages.
• Flexible working: agree in writing or meet within 28 days of the request, then decide in writing within 14 days of the meeting.
• Written reasons for dismissal: within fourteen days of the employee asking.
• 20 to 99 redundancies at one establishment: consultation and form HR1 at least 30 days before the first dismissal. 100 or more: at least 90 days before.
• Claims against you: most within 3 months less 1 day. Claims brought under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 itself: 6 months less 1 day where the act complained of happened on or after 1 October 2026. A claim for minimum wage arrears is an unlawful deductions claim and retains 3 months less 1 day. For one case, use the tribunal deadline checker.

Money figures

• Minimum wage from 1 April 2026: £12.71 (21 and over), £10.85 (18 to 20), £8.00 (under 18 and apprentices).
• Statutory sick pay from 6 April 2026: £123.25 a week, or 80% of normal weekly earnings if lower.
• Redundancy pay, for redundancies from 6 April 2026: a week's pay is capped at £783; the most is £23,490.
• Employers' liability insurance: minimum cover £5 million.
• Illegal working: a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per worker for a first breach, or up to £60,000 for a repeat breach.

Traps

• Do not use Great Britain rules here. Early conciliation is through the LRA, and claims go to an industrial tribunal.
• Unfair dismissal needs 1 year of service here. The 6-month rule from January 2027 is a Great Britain change only.
• The statutory dismissal procedure is not only for misconduct. It is the minimum whenever you are considering dismissing an employee, including for redundancy.
• For 100 or more redundancies the minimum is 90 days here, not the shorter Great Britain period.
• The Great Britain increase in the protective award from April 2026 does not apply here.
• The written statement is due within two months, not on the first day as in Great Britain.
• Paternity leave and flexible working requests still need 26 weeks of service here.
• Bank and public holidays are not an extra statutory right on top of the 5.6 weeks.