This Order amends Article 68 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (“the Principal Order”) to extend the rights conferred previously under Article 68(1)(d) and (e) not to be subjected to a detriment in health and safety cases to workers, as defined in Article 3(3) of the Principal Order. Those rights were previously conferred only upon employees, as defined in Article 3(1) of the Principal Order.

The rights conferred are for a worker to not be subjected to a detriment by the worker’s employer for leaving or refusing to return to the worker’s workplace or for taking steps to protect the worker in circumstances of danger which the worker reasonably believes to be serious and imminent.

Article 4 makes corresponding amendments to enforcement provisions and Articles 5 and 6 make corresponding amendments to remedies provisions in the Principal Order.

Article 7 is a transitional and saving provision in respect of the repeal of Article 68(1)(d) and (e) and the insertion of the new Article 68(1A).