PROPERTY, L AW & BUSINESS
More than just paying a salary! Running a small business? Perhaps a first-time employer? Ashley Quenault, English Solicitor at BCR Law LLP, considers the duties of employers to their employees: Duties under the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 (the Law) A lot of employer duties are contained in the Law. Some of these include the provision of a written statement of terms (or employment contract): This must be provided no later than four weeks after an employee starts work. Previously if an individual worked less than eight hours a week, a contract wasn’t required. This exemption ceased to apply on 1 September 2015.
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mployers owe their employees various duties. Most of them are fairly obvious (such as payment of salary) but it may not even occur to some employers that additional duties are owed to their employees. This article provides a very basic overview of some of the key legal duties employers owe to their employees. It also provides readers with information on the recent announcement made by the Employment Forum on mandatory rest periods during the working day. There are other duties which are owed by employers under common law (e.g. court judgments) but this article does not cover those.
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If an employer fails to comply with this obligation they are guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of £10,000. Minimum Rest Days An employer is required to provide employees with an uninterrupted rest period of no less than 24 hours in each seven day period. Note the Employment Forum has recently announced that it will be recommending to the Minister for Social Security that in addition to this rest day, mandatory 15 minute rest periods be introduced for any employee working more than six hours during a working day. The Employment Forum wants this in place by 1 January 2022 at the latest. This has to be debated and approved by the States.
Annual Leave An employer is required to provide their employees with the following minimum periods of paid leave during any year: • Two weeks of annual leave; • Leave on Christmas Day, Good Friday and all public or bank holidays (or to receive time off in lieu if they are required to work on those days). The Employment Forum has requested that the minimum period of annual leave be increased to three weeks. Again the Employment Forum wants this in place by 1 January 2022 at the latest, subject to States approval. Payment of at least the minimum wage Any employee who is older than 16 is entitled to be paid the minimum wage. This amount is fixed annually. Providing an itemised pay slip An employer is required to provide to every employee a written itemised pay statement. Failure to do so can result in the employer being fined £10,000 and also liable to pay an employee a sum not exceeding four weeks’ pay.
