Redundancy payments guaranteed
Thursday 2nd April 2009, 2:59PM BST.
REDUNDANCY payments were yesterday guaranteed for Island workers following a landmark vote in the States.
The decision, which will force employers to pay compensation to every staff member with at least two years’ service, brings Jersey’s employment laws in line with almost every other major developed country.
The laws, passed by 39 votes to one with six abstentions, will:
• Force employers to pay one week’s wages for every year of service to every employee with at least two years’ continuous employment.
• Bring notice payments in line with the UK.
• Introduce greater protection for workers in cases of multiple redundancies.
• Quash a previous law which states that a person who is sacked after reaching normal retirement age has no rights to claim for unfair dismissal.
• Picture: Social Security Minister Ian Gorst, who brought the proposition
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About time to employers have had it too easy for too long. Another little step in the march towards the 21st century and western humanitarian standards as far as I am concerned.
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Would love to know the name of the one person who voted against this was?!
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This should have been in the new employment law rationalised in 2008, but overlooked(conveniently) by the States.
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I still feel this is not good enough. 5 years service will just about get you a month’s wage!!
Loyalty isn’t really worth anything anymore!
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Well done chaps. A bit late, but you got there in the end.
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I assume that Adrian does not and has not been an employer as he would know that the pendulum is very much in employees’ favour.
It is hard enough to dismiss someone nowdays for unacceptable bahaviour without getting a case through JET for unfair dismissal.
The employer often has to conceed because the employee is made aware that the costs of defending often are more than the payment and the employer cannot recover his costs from the employee if he is sucessful.
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So Ade # 6 I assume you have been reaping the benefits from “employing” people in the past. Any fair employer has nothing to fear from this law, indeed it will probably enhance employee-employer relations. This should have been implemented years ago, as it has been in the UK and most civilised countries.
If you follow correct procedures if an employee is guilty of “unacceptable behaviour” you should have no problem. I certainly can’t agree about the pendulum, but things will be a bit fairer from now on.
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At last, a decision I can say is at least reasonable. The alternative of potentially ex gratia payments from the collective purse of the public was just lunacy.
At least this way the onus is on the employer to cater for their employees in the given circumstances.
And it might not be much in the scheme of things, but it’s better than nothing surely …
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Sadly legislation is always needed to protect workers. This says it all in my book. If all employers were decent this wouldn’t be needed. But as we know when money is involved people will always try and take short cuts to get away with paying what they should.
The employer should look after the workers as it is the workers that make the company a success or failure. Treat them like rubbish and you will reap the rewards with high staff turn over, lots of sickness, bad staff moral and a bad name in the business. However this doesn’t seem enough of a deterent to some employers deos it?
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This is a start but as always Jersey will do the bare minimum. A much more reasonable level of compensation is one month per year of service.
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This is good news.
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