Employment (Amendment No.11) (Jersey) Law 201-: Family Friendly Employment Rights

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A decision made 6 September 2019

Decision Reference: MD-S-2019-0061
Decision Summary Title :	DS Lodge Family friendly draft Law		Date of Decision Summary:	30 August 2019
Decision Summary Author:	Policy Principal		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	NA
Written Report Title :	WR Accompanying report - Lodge Family friendly draft Law		Date of Written Report:	30 August 2019
Written Report Author:	Policy Principal		Written Report: Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Re-lodge the Draft Employment (Amendment No.11) (Jersey) Law 201–
Decision(s): The Minister decided to re-lodge ‘au Greffe’ the Draft Employment (Amendment No.11) (Jersey) Law 201–
Reason(s) for Decision: The Draft Employment (Amendment No.11) (Jersey) Law 201– would amend the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 from 1 September 2019 to introduce a second stage of improvements to family friendly employment rights - 52 weeks of parental leave (combining maternity, adoption and parental leave) for all parents, including surrogate parents Time off work to attend appointments for adoptive and surrogate parents Breastfeeding rights - breaks and workplace facilities Paid leave where necessary on health and safety grounds for pregnant and breastfeeding women. The Minister’s original Proposition (P.17/2019) was lodged for debate in March 2019 but was delayed to allow time for a review to be undertaken by the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel. On the basis of that review, both the Minister and the Panel lodged a number of amendments to the Proposition. The Panel has since presented a report on its findings (S.R.9/2019) and the Minister issued her response (S.R.9/2019 Res.). On 14 June 2019, the Social Security Minister temporarily withdrew her Proposition to allow time to consider an issue that needed to be carefully considered and addressed in the legislation. The Minister was disappointed not to have introduced the changes to parental leave and the new rights relating to breastfeeding breaks and facilities on 1 September 2019, as planned. A number of changes have been made to the proposals, which are as described in the accompanying report which includes the original accompanying report to P.17/2019. In addition to the minor corrections previously lodged by the Minister, the following changes have been incorporated into the revised draft Law – To maintain protection for birth mothers with a period of compulsory leave Improvements to recognise the concerns of businesses - Reducing the number of separate blocks and the entitlement period in which parental leave can be taken Including a provision for ‘reasonableness’ around the changing of leave dates Increasing the period of notice required when parents wish to change their leave dates Clarifying that parental leave is not portable to a new employer Creating an offence relating to false statements or false information To clarify the definition of a ‘surrogate parent’ To provide that the legislation will come into force via an appointed day act. The Law Officers’ Department has undertaken a review of the draft Law for compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights and has advised that the draft Law does not give rise to any human rights issues.
Resource Implications: Advice, conciliation and enforcement - JACS will continue to provide an independent advisory and conciliation service in relation to employment rights from its annual grant of £354,900 for 2019. JACS provides a free service to help employers prepare for the changes, with guidance on the website, advice on changing policies and procedures, template application forms, public and private training sessions and the JACS outreach service will continue to support small businesses. The Judicial Greffe holds a separate budget for the Tribunal Service which includes dealing with complaints under the Employment Law. No additional funding or resources would be allocated to these bodies to specifically to deal with the proposed extension to existing employment rights. States Human Resources - The cost implications to the Government of Jersey as an employer are expected to be relatively small. It is not known how many additional employees will become entitled and will choose to use these rights. However, estimates are provided in the report that accompanies the draft Law to provide an indication of the potential cost. Based on a number of assumptions, the potential additional cost of the proposed draft Law is estimated to total around £206,000 per annum (an average of £31 per member of staff, per annum). Any costs will be met from within existing resources.
Action required: Policy Principal to request the Greffier of the States to arrange to re-lodge the Draft Law ‘au Greffe’ on 10 September 2019, to be listed for the States sitting of 22 October 2019. Policy Principal to provide copies of a draft consolidated version of the Employment Law to the Bookshop and request that the Greffier of the States arranges for that document to be circulated to States Members prior to the debate for reference, not as part of the Proposition itself. The Chief Minister is to approve in the absence of the Social Security Minister.
Signature:		Position: Chief Minister
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):