ONE thing is clear – former employees of the Jersey branch of Woolworths, the retail chain that has just ceased trading, have had a rough deal.

Although many of them have served the group loyally for decades, they have been made redundant without the prospect of the statutory redundancy pay which would have been their right in the United Kingdom.
Predictably, this has led to appeals to the States to step in and fill the cash gap left by compensatory legislation which has never been enacted in the Island.

In moral terms, many believe that it is outrageous that the Woolworths staff are able to see themselves as having been abandoned not only by their former employer but also by the government representing them.
But, very sadly, the adage that

hard cases make bad law must be seen to be true in this case. Tempting as the idea might be, the States are in a poor position to rush in emergency – and, in effect, retrospective – legislation to ease the plight of the people who so abruptly found themselves out of work. The only conceivable way to approach a new redundancy payment law is slowly and carefully, examining all the potential pitfalls along the way.

This, of course, will be of little comfort to the former Woolworths workers who, quite understandably, feel very hard done by indeed. But taking care to formalise new legislation does not preclude other measures.

Extreme situations call for extreme action, and even in the absence of legislative action there is nothing to stop the States from recognising hardship where hardship exists and considering very carefully the possibility of ex-gratia payments – which would in fact amount to only a small amount of money – to right a palpable wrong.

Meanwhile, the whole question of redundancy compensation could be considered in the round and, eventually, a rational decision could be reached on the question of its introduction to Island life.
If, as has been suggested, the cost, based on historical rates of redundancy, would be no more than an extra £1.50 per person per year, this looks very much like a luxury that Jersey society can well afford.