Employment Amendment Law in Force

24 October 2006

The Employment (Amendment) (Jersey) Law 2004 came into force on 23rd December 2005, making some minor changes to further clarify certain aspects of the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 which came into effect last July.

The most significant changes were made to the following aspects of the Law and the amendments reflect the Employment Forum’s recommendations to the previous Employment and Social Security Committee, made in August 2004;

(a) The Law previously provided that weekly rest days may be averaged over a fortnight. For practical reasons, e.g. planning shift rotas, it has now be clarified in the Law that if rest periods are to be averaged over two weeks, this must be specified in a ‘relevant agreement’, e.g. a collective agreement or contract.

(b) The ‘two-thirds rule’, which gives employees on fixed term contracts of 26 weeks (or less) the right to protection against unfair dismissal after two-thirds of their contract has been served, is now subject to the employee having served a minimum of 13 weeks of their contract.

The Minister for Social Security, Senator Paul Routier said "I have been pleased by the smooth implementation of the Employment Law. Overall the legislation appears to be working well. These amendments, now in force, add to the clarity of the Law and deal with a few practical issues picked up in the early stages of implementation. The Jersey Advisory and Conciliation Service has been advising the public of the impending amendments in anticipation of them coming into force. "