News and Insights

Long-awaited changes to Jersey’s employment and discrimination laws will come into effect on 25 July 2025. They include some of the most sweeping changes to these laws in over a decade, with the aim of enhancing employee rights and significantly increasing the Tribunal’s powers.

Changes include a mandatory requirement for employers to provide dismissed employees with a written statement of reasons for dismissal and dramatic changes to the compensatory powers of the Tribunal.  In addition, a costs regime has been introduced, even though the Government of Jersey had indicated (in the document setting out the changes originally proposed, P.78/2024) that no change would be made to the Tribunal’s powers in this regard at this time.  

These changes will apply with immediate effect from 25 July 2025 - but with retrospective effect for cases lodged with the Tribunal prior to that date. It will be interesting to see how the Tribunal’s new powers are exercised in cases which commenced prior to the law coming into force.

Changes to the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 (and associated legislation):

Unfair dismissal

Maximum compensation for long-serving employees has been significantly increased by introducing two new compensation bands for employees with over 10 years’ and over 15 years’ continuous employment.

The Tribunal may now also have regard to the employer’s conduct when making a compensatory award for unfair dismissal, with the ability to increase the compensatory award by up to 25% where an employer has behaved particularly badly.

A written statement of reasons for dismissal, signed and dated by the employer, must be provided to dismissed employees not later than 7 days after the final day of employment. If an employer fails to meet this requirement without good reason the Tribunal can order an employer to pay compensation of up to 8 weeks’ pay - and could still require the employer to provide written reasons for the dismissal. 

The compensation cap for breaches of statutory employment rights (such as the provision of a statement of employment terms, pay slips and flexible working requests) will increase from 4 to 8 weeks’ pay.

The compensation cap for breaches of an employee’s contractual rights increases from £10,000 to £30,000 per claim, in line with the Petty Debts Court.

Changes to the Discrimination (Jersey) Law 2013

The compensation cap for discrimination awards now rises significantly from £10,000 to £30,000 or 52 weeks’ pay (whichever is the lower) per successful complaint.

It is important to bear in mind that:

• Individuals bringing discrimination claims will frequently allege more than one unlawful act.
• The Discrimination (Jersey) Law 2013 does not only apply to employment: it also applies to the provision of goods and services, and to clubs and education for example.

Historically the Tribunal has rarely utilised the upper limits of its compensation powers in discrimination cases. Many of the awards made have been at the mid to lower levels of the Tribunal’s powers. The 2024 decision in Tommaso v (i) GC t/a Meat & Eat & (ii) Kennedy is a notable exception. In this case the Tribunal awarded the maximum sums available in response to both allegations of discrimination. (The business owner in question was also successfully prosecuted for assault.)

Conclusion

These are potentially far-reaching legislative changes, which could have a significant impact on many organisations including businesses, public sector entities and charities. Viberts will provide updates on cases in which the new powers are exercised but if you have questions do please get in touch with Viberts.