REPORT TO BE PRESENTED BY THE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY
Jersey Employment Tribunal – Re-appointment of Side Member
Background
The Jersey Employment Tribunal (the ‘Tribunal’) was established when the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 (the ‘Employment Law’) came into force on 1 July 2005. The Tribunal is an independent judicial body set up to hear and resolve certain complaints and matters of dispute arising under the Employment Law and the Employment Relations (Jersey) Law 2007. These include, for example, complaints relating to wages, holiday pay, notice on termination of employment, redundancy pay and unfair dismissal.
The Tribunal consists of a legally qualified Chairman and Deputy Chairman and two pools of side members; up to eight ‘employee’ side members and up to eight ‘employer’ side members. ‘Employee’ side members are persons with knowledge or experience of, or an interest in, trade unions or matters relating to employees generally. ‘Employer’ side members are persons with knowledge or experience of, or an interest in, employers’ associations or matters relating to employers generally.
The Employment Tribunal (Jersey) Regulations (as amended by the Employment Tribunal (Amendment No. 2) (Jersey) Regulations 2011), provide that members may be appointed to the Tribunal by the States of Jersey, upon the recommendation of the Minister for Social Security (the ‘Minister’), for a term of up to five years. If a member requests that their term is extended, the Minister may, after consultation with the Jersey Appointments Commission, extend a member’s term of office by re-appointing the member to the same office for a second term not exceeding 5 years.
The Jersey Appointments Commission’s ‘Code of Practice for Appointments to
Autonomous and Quasi-Autonomous Public Bodies and Tribunals’ states that “it is
recommended that the term of office of a member should not exceed 10 years”.
Re-appointment
A side member, whose term on the Tribunal is due to end on 30 September 2013, has requested an extension that will take his total term of office to the ten year maximum:
Mr Langlois is currently a Systems Technician with JT (Jersey) Limited, having worked there for 28 years. He is the GMB (Britain's General Union) Senior Representative at JT (Jersey) Limited and President of the GMB Jersey Branch.
Mr Langlois was appointed to the Jersey Employment Tribunal on 1 October 2005 and has served eight years as an ‘employee’ side member.
Having consulted the Jersey Appointments Commission, the Minister has decided to extend Mr Langlois’ term of office by re-appointing him for a period of two years. Mr
Langlois’ term of office will end on 30 September 2015.