News and Insights
News
|10 July 2024
The much anticipated report from the Jersey Employment Forum (the “Forum”) on the compensation regime in the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) has been published today. A link to the full report has been provided at the end of this article.
The consultation report provides recommendations on the appropriate level and structure of compensation awards in Jersey, together with associated issues, such as having a costs regime and time limits for lodging claims.
Some of the key recommendations that have been made are as follows:
- To increase the maximum number of weeks’ pay that may be awarded for breaches of an employee’s statutory rights (under the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 should be increased from 4 to 8 weeks.
- That the scale of compensation set out in the Employment (Awards) (Jersey) Order 2009 for unfair dismissal should be extended beyond the current 5-year maximum period of employment.
- That the Tribunal should be granted discretion to apply an uplift of 25% of the relevant statutory compensation limit for unfair dismissal in circumstances where an employer’s conduct has been particularly egregious.
- To increase the maximum award in employment-related discrimination cases from £10,000 to either £50,000 or 52 weeks pay, whichever is greater, of which up to £30,000 can be awarded for hurt and distress.
- To increase the jurisdictional limit of the Tribunal in contractual breaches of an employee’s rights from £10,000 to £30,000, in line with the Petty Debts Court’s jurisdiction.
- To introduce a very limited costs regime to sanction or deter vexatious claims and conduct on the part of both the employee and the employer.
- To grant the Tribunal the power to anonymise its judgments.
- To increase the time limit for filing a response to a claim from 21 days to 28 days (the time limit for lodging claims should remain the same.)
The levels of compensation in respect of both the Employment and Discrimination Laws were set some time ago so the Forum’s consultation report is timely and important. We will continue to follow this consultation with interest and are extremely grateful to the members of the Forum for their work on these significant issues in Jersey’s Tribunal.