Northern Ireland has set out how a planned new employment right to paid Safe Leave is intended to work for eligible employees and workers affected by domestic abuse. The proposed entitlement would provide 10 paid days in each leave year and is intended to take effect in April 2027, subject to the required Assembly processes and scrutiny.
The Department for the Economy has published its policy response after a consultation on regulations under the Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. The announcement is a statement of the planned framework, not the start of an entitlement that people can use now. Draft regulations and supporting guidance are still being developed.
How the planned entitlement would work
Under the plans, every eligible employee and worker would receive 10 days of paid Safe Leave in a leave year, whether they work full-time or part-time. The department says the leave would be available from the first day of employment. Each period of leave would be paid at the person’s normal rate, reflecting the remuneration they would ordinarily have received had they been at work.
Safe Leave could be used flexibly, including in half-days. The proposed leave year would, where appropriate, follow the approach used for annual leave under the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016. However, Safe Leave would remain a separate entitlement rather than being treated as annual leave.
The planned definition of domestic abuse would be broad. It would cover the behaviours considered during the consultation and include both single incidents and patterns of behaviour. The department has not presented the new right as a requirement for a person to provide an account of the abuse when asking for time away from work.
Privacy and limited notification
Notification requirements are intended to be limited to what is needed to administer the leave. A person taking Safe Leave would not have to disclose the particular reason for the request or details of the abuse. That proposed approach is intended to make access more straightforward while protecting privacy and personal information.
Supporting guidance is being prepared alongside the regulations with the Domestic Abuse Safe Leave Working Group. The department says the guidance will help employers understand their responsibilities, deal with requests sensitively and handle personal information securely. It is also expected to address practical matters including notice, pay, absence recording, the interaction with other leave, protection from detriment and dismissal, remedies and routes to specialist support.
What happens next
The consultation ran from 5 July to 27 September 2024 and received 55 responses. It asked for views on matters including the definition of domestic abuse, the leave year, flexible use of leave, notification, pay and the content of guidance. The department says it considered those responses in setting out the policy decisions now being used to shape the regulations.
The department is in the final stages of drafting the regulations and developing guidance. It has said it aims to have the regulations in place before the end of the current Assembly mandate, with Safe Leave coming into operation in April 2027. That timetable remains conditional on the necessary Assembly procedures and scrutiny. Until those steps are complete and the regulations commence, the proposed Safe Leave framework is not yet a new statutory right in operation.
