Employment Tribunal Members: Appointment

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A decision made 17 January 2014:

Decision Reference: MD-S-2013-0135
Decision Summary Title :	DS P Tribunal Deputies and Side Member		Date of Decision Summary:	17 January 2014
Decision Summary Author:	Policy Principal		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	WR P Tribunal Deputies and Side Member		Date of Written Report:	17 January 2014
Written Report Author:	Policy Principal		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: States Proposition - Appointment of Employment Tribunal Members
Decision(s): The Minister decided to lodge a Proposition requesting that the States appoint the following proposed new members to the Employment Tribunal in accordance with the Employment Tribunal (Jersey) Regulations 2005, each for a five year term starting on 1 March 2014; - Advocate Michael Preston as a Deputy Chairman. - Mrs Hilary Griffin as a Deputy Chairman. - Mrs Emma Harper as an employer representative Side Member.
Reason(s) for Decision: The Employment Tribunal (Jersey) Regulations 2005, as amended, require that members are appointed by the States on the recommendation of the Social Security Minister, following consultation with the Appointments Commission. A number of available positions on the Employment Tribunal were openly advertised and interviews were undertaken, overseen by the Jersey Appointments Commission. The Minister for Social Security is satisfied that the proposed members detailed in the written report have the necessary qualifications, knowledge and experience.
Resource Implications: There are no financial or manpower implications. Training for new members will be financed from existing budgets.
Action required: Policy Principal to ask the Greffier of the States to make arrangements to lodge the Proposition for States debate on 18 February 2014 after the expiry of the minimum 4 week lodging period. In accordance with a ruling of the Bailiff on 6 March 2013, the report includes a description of what the Tribunal does.
Signature:		Position:
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Employment Tribunal Members: Appointment

PROPOSITION

THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion 

to appoint, further to a process overseen by the Jersey Appointments Commission and in accordance with the Employment Tribunal (Jersey) Regulations 2005, as amended, the following persons as members of the Jersey Employment Tribunal, each for a period of 5 years commencing on 1 March 2014 –

Advocate Michael Preston

Mrs Hilary Griffin

Mrs Emma Harper

MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

REPORT

Appointments to the Jersey Employment Tribunal

Background

Article 81 of the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 (the ‘Employment Law’) provides for the establishment of the Jersey Employment Tribunal (the ‘Tribunal’) and provides that it will exercise the jurisdiction conferred on it by the Employment Law and any other Law.

The Tribunal became operational in 2005 and is responsible for enforcing the Island’s employment legislation: the Employment Law and the Employment Relations (Jersey) Law 2007. It hears and determines complaints relating to:

Written statements of employment
Minimum rest periods and annual leave
Minimum wage
Payment of wages (including itemised pay statements)
Notice pay on termination of employment
Unfair dismissal
Redundancy pay and related rights
Breach of contract of employment
Trade union recognition
Collective disputes

The written decisions of the Tribunal are published on the Jersey Legal Information Board website. Annual Reports of the Tribunal are presented as a Report to the States each year. The latest Annual Report was presented on 16 April 2013 (R.28/2013).

In September 2014, subject to the States approving an appointed day act and new Tribunal Regulations [1], the Tribunal will become the ‘Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal’. It will then also hear complaints of race discrimination made under the Discrimination (Jersey) Law 2013.

Constitution of the Tribunal

Article 82 of the Employment Law provides that Regulations may provide for the constitution, membership and administration of the Tribunal, including for the appointment and terms of membership of the members. These provisions are set out in the Employment Tribunal (Jersey) Regulations 2005 (the ‘Regulations’), as amended by the Employment Tribunal (Amendment No. 3) (Jersey) Regulations 2012.

The Regulations provide that in hearing a complaint, an Employment Tribunal three-person panel consists of a legally qualified Chair with two Side Members; one from a pool of eight employee representative Side Members who have knowledge or experience of or interest in trade unions or matters relating to employees generally, and one from a pool of eight employer representative Side Members who have knowledge or experience of or interest in employers’ associations, or matters relating to employers generally.

The Regulations also provide that the recruitment of Tribunal members must be overseen by, and conducted in accordance with, the guidelines produced by the Jersey Appointments Commission (the ‘Appointments Commission’). Members are appointed by the States on the recommendation of the Minister for Social Security the ‘Minister’), after consultation with the Appointments Commission.

The Employment Tribunal (Amendment No. 3) (Jersey) Regulations 2012 increased the number of Deputy Chairmen that may be appointed to the Tribunal from one Deputy to a maximum of five Deputies.

Recruitment of Tribunal members

Open recruitment was undertaken during the period October to December 2013 with the intention of filling up to three of the newly created Deputy Chairman positions. In addition, a vacancy for an employer representative Side Member was advertised following the resignation of Mr Tim Allen on 16 September 2013.

An advertisement was placed in the Jersey Evening Post and on the States website in October. Following short-listing, structured interviews were undertaken in December by a recruitment panel chaired by a representative of the Appointments Commission. Having considered the candidates, the recruitment panel recommended the appointment of three new members.

The Minister is satisfied that the two proposed Deputy Chairmen have the required legal qualifications, knowledge and experience. The Minister is also satisfied that the proposed employer representative Side Member has the required knowledge and experience of matters relating to employers generally. Further details of the three proposed members are provided in the Appendix.

The Minister proposes that the States approves the following appointments, each for a five year term of office commencing on 1 March 2014;

- Advocate Michael Preston as a Deputy Chairman

- Mrs Hilary Griffin as a Deputy Chairman

- Mrs Emma Harper as an employer representative Side Member.

Financial and manpower implications

There are no financial or manpower implications arising from this Proposition. Training for new members will be financed from existing budgets.
APPENDIX

Advocate Michael Preston has been a Partner of Voisin law firm since 2000 and a non-executive director of the associated trust company Volaw since 2006. Advocate Preston has considerable relevant experience having appeared in all Courts of Jersey in a wide variety of contentious matters, including trust and commercial disputes, criminal matters and employment complaints. His primary focus is on advising and appearing in respect of criminal and civil matters before the Royal Court and Court of Appeal, including a number of recent high profile criminal matters. Advocate Preston has also appeared before the Employment Tribunal on a number of occasions and has appeared before the Royal Court in three appeals from decisions of the Employment Tribunal.

Mrs Hilary Griffin qualified to practice as an English solicitor in 2002 and for nine years worked for London-based international law firm Clyde and Co as a Senior Employment Associate and latterly as a Professional Support Lawyer. Mrs Griffin’s experience in these roles included acting for clients in a wide variety of cases in employment tribunals and the High Court, as well as marketing and training for the employment law team and clients. Mrs Griffin’s experience includes employer and employee representation in a wide variety of Tribunal cases, including unfair dismissal and discrimination complaints. Mrs Griffin moved to Jersey in 2011 and has divided her time between settling her young family into Island life and continuing to act as a director of a family chemical business in England which employs approximately 15 people.

Mrs Emma Harper has 19 years’ experience as Owner, Director and Company Secretary of Harpers Catering Limited. In that role, she employs and manages a multicultural workforce of more than 100 staff, which includes a small number of permanent employees and a wide range of seasonal, temporary and part-time staff. Mrs Harper has practical, hands-on experience of running a small business in accordance with the employment legislation. Harpers Catering was awarded runner-up in the 2012 Jersey Enterprise Awards ‘Small Business of the Year’ category. Mrs Harper has previous experience of working in the travel and retail sectors and she served for two years as the Chairman of the Parent Teachers’ Association for St John’s Primary School.

[1] P.4/2014 and P.5/2014