Labour Relations Agency podcast

In this special episode as part of our celebration of 50 years of the LRA, Chief Executive Mark McAllister is joined in conversation by Jim McCusker, a titan of the Northern Irish employment relations scene, to discuss his time with the LRA as a Board member from 2003, and subsequent time as the Chair of the organisation from 2008 to 2014.

Jim has dedicated a lifetime's distinguished service to trade unionism and labour relations, serving as the General Secretary of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (or NIPSA for short) from 1977 to his retirement in 2003. Jim has also served as the Chair of the NI Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, as well as on the NI Economic Council, the NI Economic Development Forum and the Industrial Court.

In our first episode of our new "This Thing Called Work" series, Mark McAllister, Chief Executive of the Labour Relations Agency, is joined by Dr. Lisa Wilson, Senior Economist at the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI), for a fascinating discussion on the themes coming out of the "Going Beyond Pay: Job Quality In Northern Ireland - Results From The Skills And Employment Survey 2024" which was published in November 2025.

In our second Podcast on this topic, Diane Edgington is joined by Mary McManus, Regional Manager Living Wage NI, Sean McDonnell, owner/founder of Nine Squared Coffee, and Alison Gordon, Director of Development at The Court House, Bangor, to discuss the Real Living Wage plus the impact it has had for Sean and Alison since embarking on their journeys to becoming accredited Living Wage employers.

In this episode the Labour Relations Agency's Diane Edgington chats to Daniel Comiskey, Head of Marketing at Newry-based S&W Wholesale, winners of the Business Eye Awards 'Employer of the Year' category, sponsored by the Labour Relations Agency.

Daniel describes how his company is celebrating 2 years as an 'Employee Ownership Trust', and the benefits they've seen in terms of staff engagement and future proofing the business. It's a way of giving something back to employees and sharing both accountability and a return on the performance of the business. In terms of the challenges Daniel says change always needs careful management but that good communication is key.

The Living Wage Foundation recently announced an increase in the Real Living Wage to £12.60 per hour, a voluntary wage rate that is calculated based on the cost of living and is intended to provide a decent standard of living for employees.

Today we are joined by Mary McManus, Regional Manager for Living Wage NI, based in Advice NI (a partnership between Advice NI and the Living Wage Foundation and funded by the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland) and Elaine Clarke, Director of Employment Relations Services at the Labour Relations Agency, to talk more about what the Real Wage standard is, where it came from and the challenges and benefits for employers of signing up.

The last number of years has been a fallow period in terms of new employment legislation in Northern Ireland, which has seen a growing divergence between employment law here and in Great Britain. Against this backdrop, the Department for the Economy published its "Good Jobs" Employment Rights Bill consultation in July this year, which has a particular focus on four main areas - Terms of Employment, Pay and Benefits, Voice and Recognition and Work-Life Balance. The consultation seeks to gather opinion and evidence o help enhance the future employment law framework in Northern Ireland and ensure it is fit for purpose.

We are joined today by Ciara Fulton, Partner and Head of law firm Lewis Silkin in Northern Ireland where she works in their Employment, Immigration and Reward devision, and Patricia Coulter, Employment Relations Manager and Knowledge guru at the Labour Relations Agency, to look at the contents of the consultation.

The consultation is available at https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/consultations/good-jobs-employment-rights-bill

Podcast 7 – The value of Trade Unions.

In the 7th Podcast in our series on "Challenging Workplaces" series, we discuss the value of trade unions in the workplace. Our Director of Employment Services, Mark McAllister, is joined by Nita Clarke OBE, director of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA), Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers Union (UTU) and Clare Moore, Equality and Social Affairs Officer with the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (NICICTU) , to discuss the value of trade unions in the workplace.

Hybrid working is one of the biggest drivers of change for organisations in the UK and Ireland. We are joined by leading HR practitioner, thinker and author, Gary Cookson and Ana Desmond, Senior Economist at the University of Ulster, and co-author of recent research "Is remote working, working?", to discuss how organisations should approach the topic, and ways they can get it working for them.

Recent research has estimated the cost of workplace conflict for employers in Northern Ireland to be £851 million per year.

For the fifth podcast in our series on "Challenging Workplaces", we are joined by one of the authors of the research, Professor Richard Saundry from Westminster University, along with Nicola Barber, Chair of CIPD Northern Ireland, and our own Director of Employment Services, Mark McAllister, to discuss the topic and how managerial capability could help reduce these costs.

In the fourth podcast in our "Challenging Workplaces" series, we discuss the four day week, and whether it might be time to reassess the traditional Monday to Friday working pattern in the modern workplace. Paul Lowe, Director of Corporate Services at the Labour Relations Agency, talks with guests Michelle Murphy, Head of Operations and HR at JMK Solicitors, and Jayne Gallagher, Managing Director of Legal Island, about the topic, plus the challenges and benefits they have experienced when implementing the 4 day working week in their organisations.