Legal costs of the former employees of Woolworths PLC.

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A decision made (02/02/2009) regarding: Legal costs of the former employees of Woolworths PLC.

Decision Reference: MD-TR-2009-0016
Decision Summary Title:	Legal costs of the former employees of Woolworths plc		Date of Decision Summary:	2nd February 2009
Decision Summary Author:	Jason Turner Deputy Treasurer		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title:	Legal costs of the former employees of Woolworths plc		Date of Written Report:	2nd February 2009
Written Report Author:	Jason Turner Deputy Treasurer		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Exempt 3.2.1 (x)
Subject: Legal costs of the former employees of Woolworths plc
Decision(s): The Minister decided, without prejudice to any future case of redundancy arising in the Island, to prioritise the use of departments’ 2008 underspend against budget to meet the legal costs of the former employees of Woolworths plc.
Reason(s) for Decision: The Council of Ministers, strongly believes that the former employees of Woolworths plc in Jersey should be supported by providing them with every assistance possible in pursuing their rights through the Royal Court, including most particularly meeting the legal costs of them doing so. To ensure that the former employees of Woolworths plc in Jersey have every support necessary to enable them to pursue their rights to payments in lieu of notice as provided for in the Employment Law (Jersey) 2003. Article 15(1) of the Public Finance (Jersey) Law 2005 provides that all or any part of the money appropriated to a head of expenditure may, with the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources, be withdrawn from the consolidated fund after the end of the relevant financial year i.e. carried forward into the following year.
Resource Implications: Other than those detailed in the report there are no further financial or manpower Implications.
Action required: Minister for Treasury and Resources to notify the Council of Ministers that the first call on 2008 departmental underspends will be the costs of funding legal action by the former employees of Woolworths plc.
Signature:		Position: Senator P F C Ozouf, Minister for Treasury and Resources
Date Signed: 2nd February 2009		Date of Decision: 2nd February 2009