Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999
What this means for your business
- Applies to
- United Kingdom
- On this page
- 12 compliance obligations, 1 practical guide
What you must do
12 compliance obligations under this legislation.
Notifications 1
Give employees notice of their community classification before monitoring return
When you need to submit a Fair Employment monitoring return to the Commission, you must send each affected employee a written notice at least two weeks beforehand. The notice must tell the employee which community they are being recorded as belonging to, or that the community cannot be determined for the return.
Offences and prohibitions 5
Disclose confidential monitoring information
Unlimited fineIf you are an employer or employee and you reveal any monitoring data about employees or job applicants that was obtained under the Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations, you commit a criminal offence. The offence is tried in the magistrates' court and can result in an unlimited fine. No prison term is specified.
Fail to retain applicant data or give false information
Unlimited fineIf you run a registered concern in Northern Ireland, you must collect each job applicant’s name and address, keep the information and any decision records for three years, and ensure the records are accurate. Failing to keep these records, or deliberately providing false information, is a criminal offence. On conviction in the magistrates’ court you face an unlimited fine; there is no prison term for these offences.
Fail to retain employee monitoring records
Unlimited fineIf your business does not keep the written information and the determinations about an employee for three years after that employee leaves, and you have no reasonable excuse, you are committing an offence. A conviction in the magistrates' court can result in a fine (level 5 on the standard scale, which is unlimited). There is no prison term attached to this breach.
Fail to submit a correct monitoring return
Fine up to £10,000If your business submits a monitoring return to the Commission that is not prepared according to the Fair Employment Regulations or is missing required information, and you cannot show a reasonable excuse, you commit a criminal offence. On conviction in the Magistrates' Court you face a fine of up to £10,000.
Provide false information on employment monitoring return
Unlimited fineIf you knowingly give false information to anyone gathering data for a Fair Employment monitoring return, or you put false information into the return yourself without a reasonable excuse, you commit a criminal offence. On conviction in the Magistrates' Court you can be fined an unlimited amount. No imprisonment is provided for this offence.
Record keeping 2
Collect written Protestant/Catholic status from staff and applicants
You must get a written statement from every employee about whether they are Protestant, Roman Catholic, or neither. If you don’t already have one, you must ask them in writing and treat them according to the answer they give. The same question must be put on or sent with every job application, and you must treat applicants the same way based on their written reply.
Obtain prescribed employee and applicant information on time
You must collect the data the Fair Employment Regulations require about every current employee, job applicant and former employee within the time limits set by the law. For employees, this is within the first three months of the first monitoring year and within the first month of each later year. For applicants and former staff, you have two months from the date they apply or leave.
Reporting and filing 4
Comply with Commission directions on employee monitoring methods
If the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland tells you to use a different method for deciding a case involving an employee and for preparing the related monitoring return, you must follow that instruction. The normal rules (Regulations 8 & 11) are set aside for those employees while the direction is in force.
Determine applicant community for monitoring returns
When you prepare a Fair Employment monitoring return, you must decide which community each job applicant belongs to using the method set out in the Regulations. If the method can’t identify the applicant’s community, you must record them as ‘cannot be determined’. This information is then used in your statutory monitoring report.
Submit annual employee and appointee data to the Fair Employment monitor
Each year you must collect and report a detailed breakdown of your workforce – gender, religious/community background, full‑time/part‑time status, apprenticeship contracts and occupational groups – and also the same kind of data for any appointees and, where relevant, promotees. This information is supplied in the statutory monitoring return.
Submit monitoring returns with prescribed employee data
You must include the specific information about your employees, job applicants and former staff that is listed in the regulations when you prepare a monitoring return (except for the very first return). This means gathering and reporting the data set out in Schedule 1 each time you submit a return.
Penalties for non-compliance
5 penalties under this legislation. 4 carry an unlimited fine.
Disclose confidential monitoring information
Unlimited fine
Fail to retain applicant data or give false information
Unlimited fine
Fail to retain employee monitoring records
Unlimited fine
Provide false information on employment monitoring return
Unlimited fine
Fail to submit a correct monitoring return
Fine up to £10,000
Practical guidance
Our guides explain how to comply with the requirements above.
Sections and provisions
24 classified provisions from this legislation.
Duties 7
- s.5 Prescribed information
- s.7 Period within which prescribed information shall be obtained
- s.9 Principal method of making a determination in respect of applicants such applicant as belonging
- s.12 Disclosure to employees employee
- s.14 Directions by the Commission employee
- Schedule 1 Prescribed Information
- Schedule 2 PRINCIPAL METHOD OF DETERMINING THE COMMUNITY TO WHICH EMPLOYEES BELONG
Offences and penalties 5
- s.16 Confidentiality of monitoring information
- s.17 Records about employees and offences in respect of those records
- s.18 Information about applicants and offences in respect of that information
- s.19 Offence of employer serving a return not in accordance with Regulations
- s.20 Offence of giving and including in returns false information