Call for pay-out to Woolies workers
Saturday 3rd January 2009, 9:56AM GMT.
DEPUTY Geoff Southern has called on the States to pay a total of almost £140,000 to Woolworths staff who were made redundant following the collapse of the retailer last month.
In a proposition lodged yesterday, Deputy Southern asked the Treasury Minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, to release £139,500 to compensate staff who would have been entitled to a redundancy package if they lived in the UK.
Under the UK Statutory Redundancy Scheme, any worker made redundant from a company which has gone into administration can claim compensation from the government. No such scheme exists in Jersey.
It is believed that if the scheme did apply in Jersey, 41 of the Woolworths employees would have been able to claim redundancy payments of between £24 and £9,900.
Pictured: Deputy Geoff Southern and Unite leader Nick Corbel want to see the States adopt a government redundancy package to give employees greater protection
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Is this setting a precedent ?
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So Geoff Southern believes the tax payer should compensate the Woolworth staff? God am I glad this man did not get the position of States treasurer now. In an Island where we are trying to cut back spending all the JDA want to do is carry on spending.
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Oh dear Geoff! However worth the Woolworths staff may be, we cannot ‘Pick and Mix’ legislation of other jurisdictions to suit the Deputy Southern agenda. This ‘woolly call’ does a disservice to the scores of workers within other local industries who have been also been made redundant.
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Over the past 5 – 10 years many staff have been laid off or made redundant in the finance industry without any compensation. There was no outcry then so should Woolworth staff be entitled to “special” treatment when others are not ?
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I seem to recall a few finance places making people redundant not so long ago, but I don’t recall Geoff Southern and the JDA showing much concern back then.
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£140,000? What about all previous people over the year who lost their jobs?
What about the people who lost all their life savings in the Iceland bank?
What about the people in the Toy shop?
What about the Tomato growers?
The list goes on and with headlines like ‘OAPs in one room due to rising bills’ where do you draw the line?
If our Government goes ahead and offers money to the Woolworths workers then are they to help out every single person who will be effected by the economic climate?
This would open the flood gates for even more claims in the future.
Taxpayers should not fund this and I expect the States to offer support elsewhere like Income Support and Job advise etc and making sure the people effected are re-employed as soon as possible.
To end I am not heartless but realistic about what this would cost if agreed, Now and in the future
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Didnt see them complain when they earned higher wages than the UK and less tax.
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Without a doubt it is a shame for all the staff of woolies who have lost their jobs and i am sure the majority of islanders sympathise with them and hope they all will get new jobs as soon as possible and i for one wish them all good luck. However i am fully against the states stepping in with any help with redundancy pay, what i see here as the problem is that our states members many of them who are jumping on the “help woolies staff” bandwagon have always known that there is no redundancy law in Jersey and why have they not introduced a law many years before , well these so called states members should hang their heads in shame in trying firstly trying to gain personal political points and secondly the serving states members who are creating spin for their own political party. As for the Union sticking their noses in perhaps they should have done what they are supposed to be paid for and should of fought for workers rights years ago
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Feel really sorry for Woolworths ex staff, but I can’t support taxpayer money being used for payments to them.
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In 2005 there was a new employment law adopted,which had no redundancy clause. Now either the politicians all followed like sheep so as to not rock the boat, or they did not understand the legalities of the new law, in which case – what the hell are these people doing in the States?
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Geoff Southern always seems to leap onto these cases knowing full well that the tax payer would object. Why give these poor staff false hope like this? The JDA is an enigma, one minute they dismiss any new taxes but they are still happy to throw money at problems when it suits. I hope the treasury minister throws this ridiculous idea into the bin. Besides these employees should be looking for jobs as quickly as possible not hand outs.
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The problem is that Jersey did not plan for any economic crisis (ostrich head-in-the-sand behaviour) and it’s human cost. Seems not to have occurred to anybody. It’s not about tax (so stop complaining about it), it’s about a national insurance against unemployment, as implemented in almost all European countries (part of social security). Such an insurance is not feasible for a handful of individuals but it’s cheap if implemented on a state-wide level. But of course those with ample economic wealth do not care to share the burden as long as there are many lowly paid “peasants” doing the chores for next to nothing. Further, assuming that all people earn more in Jersey thane elsewhere is pure self-deception. A myth! It is plainly Not true! Jersey’s lower tax is more than compensated by high living costs and astronomically high housing prices, benefiting not the vulnerable on the island but all the upper percentile of rich, which want to defend their greed as much as possible.
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Deputy GS should be ashamed of himself for even proposing that our taxes be given away in this manner.
This is the reason we need true leaders to run our Island.
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lefttheisland… where are these higher salaries? I doubt that the retail workers are seeing them!
Michel, very well said, ALL of it!
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This is simply the States paying for not introducing a law earlier becuase they were pretending that redundancy doesn’t happen in Jersey.
It’s happened to me twice.
For once I agree with GS but there must be a law change at the same time
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Woolworths is only the beggining Geoff, i dont think u realise that many more organisations are facing closure, do you realy expect the tax payers of Jersey to start paying redundancy to every firm that closes?? Wake up Mate,
Clearly you are trying to look like the “good guy”, and its not working. May i Suggest bringing in a redundancy law to protect ALL employees in Jersey.
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Typical Southern – exploiting emotive issues. His call is clearly nothing more than an attempt to raise his profile amongst the less well off in the Island and to further his goal of driving a wedge between blue and white collar workers. Fortunately, judging by the majority of these posts, people are too well informed for his trick to work.
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To all the people now bleating:
If you want UK levels of social security benefits then try paying UK levels of Tax and NI.
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Ordinary Joe has a point.
We will all moan if Tax or GST is raised to cover any compensation packages for future payments.
19000 people signed the GST petition because they did not want to pay it.
Only 5000 so far have signed the Woolies Petition.
Says it all.
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Firstly I would like to say how much I sympathise with the Woolworth ex employees, however; I am a little confused why the States of Jersey are getting involved with their claim for entitlement for redundancy compensation? There have been a number of Companies that have unfortunately fallen by the wayside recently i.e. Vanni, The Luggage Shop, Horseplay, as well as others that are in the process of closure, all of whom have left many unemployed. The law currently states that anyone being made redundant is entitled to one weeks pay for every year they have been in employment with that Company. This payment is the responsibility of that Company and not the Government. Currently, in Jersey, there is no law in place to protect these people if the Company can not pay, however, if a law is changed to the contrary then it would apply to anyone following the date of it being passed through the court and not to previous cases. That would make the Woolworth staff victims of circumstances, as it would to anyone else in the same situation. If the Woolworth staff are given compensation, then to avoid any discrimination, anyone made redundant in Jersey should be entitled to the same treatment. Therefore; if the Woolworth staff are given compensation by the States of Jersey, then I would suggest that they should be prepared to dig a lot deeper into their pockets to compensate all of the other people who have been, or are, in the same boat.
Steve
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Red Geoff, the JDA and their union cronies !
We pay taxes including GST on everything including food so our government can target those who are needy with benefits.
Does this situation not show how wise our elected reps were not to exclude food from GST?
All Woollies staff are now unemployed, “some” not all will now be needy, some may still have good household incomes coming in and may be enjoying the rest until their next job.
Needy people are targeted with the many benefits payed for by taxing those still earning its called our welfare society.
Woolworths will not be the only casualties of the credit crunch. we have safety nets in place, we have ways we are paying for those safety nets.
Lets not get silly and give out payments from the public purse to all, needy or not.
once again the left wing show their complete lack of understanding that to give it away first you must have it and be able to sustain that position.
I completely agree with Walter. These left wingers should be ashamed of themselvs raising hopes of handouts when none will be forthcoming.
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