Jersey Trade Union Hits Back Over Planned Changes To Employment Rights

by Jason Gorringe, for LawAndTax-News.com, London

09 November 2004

The Jersey branch of the Transport and General Workers Union has slammed new employment rights proposals put forward by the States authorities, arguing that they are backward-looking, and undermine workers' rights on both an individual and collective level.

Speaking before a meeting of shop stewards and union activists on Monday, T&G regional secretary, Andy Frampton argued that:

"If these changes go through, Jersey will have the worst employment rights in the Western world. The government describe their plans as 'Fair Play' but we see nothing fair about them at all."

He went on to add that:

"We see these proposals undermining rights to redundancy pay, protection against discrimination and protection of pay, terms and conditions if your job is being transferred."

The T&G has asked employment rights experts to study the government's plans. Their findings will inform a delegation of union officials who are scheduled to meet with a government committee on November 17 in an effort to persuade the Jersey authorities to scrap or substantially amend the proposals.

The stated aims of the Employment Relations Law are: to provide a straightforward system of legal identification and registration of trade unions and collective associations, and to accord such bodies clear legal status; to create a legal dispute resolution process which supports and develops good employment relations in the Island, with the aim of reducing disputes and enabling early resolution of disputes by due process where they occur; and to support existing codes of practice.

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