Jersey Law | Revised | Revised Edition - Showing the law at 1 January 2010 - Employment (Jersey) Law 2003

A LAW to amend and consolidate enactments relating to employers’ obligations to specify terms of employment, the payment of wages, and the notice required to terminate contracts of employment; to provide for compulsory minimum periods of leave and rest time for employees; to provide employees with rights not to be unfairly dismissed and to be paid a minimum wage; and to repeal and replace enactments for the establishment and jurisdiction of Tribunals to hear and determine employment disputes; and for incidental and connected purposes.

Commencement [see endnotes]

PART 1

GENERAL

1 Interpretation and application

(1) In this Law, unless the context otherwise requires –

“civil proceedings” means proceedings before the Tribunal or civil proceedings before any court;

“collective agreement” means an agreement that has been settled by machinery of negotiation, mediation, conciliation or arbitration to which the parties are –

(a) an employer, or an organization of employers that is representative of a substantial proportion of the employers engaged in the trade or industry concerned; and

(b) employees who are representative of a substantial proportion of the employees engaged in the trade or industry concerned;

“collective employment dispute” means a collective employment dispute as defined in Article 5 of the Employment Relations (Jersey) Law 2007[1];

“employment dispute” means a dispute between an employer or employers and an employee or employees in the employment of that employer or employers which is connected with the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour of any of those employees or with the rights or duties of an employer or an employee;

“Employment Forum” means the body that, under Article 21, is to be regarded for the purposes of this Law as being the Employment Forum;

“enforcement notice” shall be construed in accordance with Article 27;

“fixed term contract of employment” means a contract of employment which, according to its terms, will expire on –

(a) the expiry of a specified period of time;

(b) a specified date;

(d) the completion of a specified task or project;

“individual employment dispute” means an employment dispute that is not a collective employment dispute;

“JACS” means the Jersey Advisory and Conciliation Service established by the Jersey Advisory and Conciliation (Jersey) Law 2003[2];

“job”, in relation to an employee, means the nature of the work which the employee is employed to do in accordance with his or her contract of employment and the capacity in and place at which he or she is so employed;

“lock-out” means –

(a) the closing of a place of employment;

(b) the suspension of work; or

in consequence of a dispute, done with a view to compelling those persons, or to aid another employer in compelling persons employed by that employer, to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

“minimum wage” shall be construed in accordance with Article 16(3);

“Minister” means the Minister for Social Security;

“notice” means notice in writing;

“officer acting for the purposes of this Law” means an officer appointed under Article 96;

“pay reference period” shall be construed in accordance with Article 16(4);

“penalty notice” shall be construed in accordance with Article 29;

“person who qualifies for the minimum wage” shall be construed in accordance with Article 16(2) and related expressions shall be construed accordingly;

“prescribed” means prescribed by the Minister by Order;

“relevant agreement”, in relation to an employee, means any provision of a collective agreement which forms part of a contract between the employee and his or her employer, or any other agreement in writing which is legally enforceable as between the employee and his or her employer;

“strike” means the cessation of work by a body of persons employed acting in combination, or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons employed to continue to work for an employer in consequence of a dispute, done as a means of compelling their employer or any person or body of persons employed, or to aid other employees in compelling their employer or any person or body of persons employed, to accept or not to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

“Tribunal” means the Tribunal established by Article 81; and

“wages” means remuneration or earnings, however designated or calculated, capable of being expressed in terms of money and fixed by a relevant agreement or by or under an enactment, which are payable by virtue of a contract of employment by an employer to an employee for work done or to be done or for services rendered or to be rendered but does not include pensions contributions paid by the employer or any other ancillary non-monetary benefits.[3]

(2) This paragraph shall apply in any case where an individual (the “agency worker”) –

(a) is supplied by a person (the “agent”) to do work for another (the “principal”) under a contract or other arrangements made between the agent and the principal; but

(b) is not, as respects that work, an employee, because of the absence of a contract of employment between the individual and the agent or the principal; and

(c) is not a party to a contract under which he or she undertakes to do the work for another party to the contract whose status is, by virtue of the contract, that of a client or customer of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual.

(3) In a case where paragraph (2) applies, the other provisions of this Law shall have effect as if there were a contract of employment for the doing of the work by the agency worker made between the agency worker and –

(a) whichever of the agent and the principal is directly responsible for paying the agency worker in respect of the work; or

(b) if neither the agent nor the principal is so responsible, whichever of them pays the agency worker in respect of the work.

(4) A reference in this Law to a person being remunerated for a pay reference period is a reference to the person being remunerated by his or her employer in respect of his or her work in that pay reference period.

(5) This Law shall not apply to the employment of a person under which the person’s work (of whatever description) relates to the employer’s family household –

(a) where –

(i) the employee resides in the family home of the employer for whom he or she works,

(ii) the employee is not a member of that family, but is treated as such, in particular as regards to the provision of accommodation and meals and the sharing of tasks and leisure activities,

(iii) the employee is neither liable to any deduction, nor to make any payment to the employer, or to any other person, in respect of the provision of living accommodation or meals, and

(iv) had the work been done by a member of the employer’s family, this Law would not apply because the conditions in sub-paragraph (b) would be satisfied; or

(b) where –

(i) the employee is a member of the employer’s family,

(ii) the employee resides in the family home of the employer, and

(iii) the employee shares in the tasks and activities of the family,

and the employee’s work is done in that context.

(6) This Law shall not apply to the employment of a person under which the person’s work (of whatever description) relates to the employer’s family business where –

(a) the employee is a member of the employer’s family;

(b) the employee resides in the family home of the employer; and

and the work is done in that context.

(7) A reference in this Law to doing work includes a reference to performing services; and “work” and other related expressions shall be construed accordingly.

(8) This Law shall not apply to the employment of a person as an officer of the States of Jersey Police Force.

1A “Employer” and “employee”

(1) In this Law –

(a) “employer” means a person who employs another person; and

(b) “employee” means a person who is employed by an employer.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), a person is employed by another person if the first person works for the second person under a contract of service or apprenticeship with the second person.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1), a person is also employed by another person if the first person enters into any other contract with the second person under which –

(a) the first person undertakes to do, or to perform personally, work or services for the second person; and

(b) the status of the second person is not that of a client or customer of any profession or trade or business undertaking that is carried on by the first person.

(4) It is immaterial whether a contract to which paragraph (2) or paragraph (3) refers is express or implied.

(5) If the contract is express, it is immaterial whether it is oral or in writing.[4]

1B “Trade union”

(1) In this Law, “trade union” means an organization described in paragraph (2) or in paragraph (3).

(2) An organization is a trade union if –

(a) it consists wholly or mainly of employees of one or more descriptions; and

(b) its principal purposes include the regulation of relations between employees of that description or of those descriptions and employers or employers’ associations.

(3) An organization is also a trade union if it consists wholly or mainly of –

(a) constituent or affiliated organizations that fulfil the conditions in paragraph (2), or that themselves consist wholly or mainly of constituent or affiliated organizations that fulfil those conditions; or

(b) representatives of any such constituent or affiliated organizations,

and its principal purposes include the regulation of relations between employees and employers or between employees and employers’ associations, or the regulation of relations between its constituent or affiliated organizations.

(4) It is immaterial whether an organization described in paragraph (2) or in paragraph (3) is temporary or permanent.[5]

1C “Employers’ association”

(1) In this Law, “employers’ association” means an organization that is described in paragraph (2) or in