Islands warned on redundancy pay

GD wrote:

...More than 2,500 people have signed a petition calling for redundancy pay for the staff. Woolworths is due to close the last 200 of its UK stores on Tuesday. (from BBC News)

I was asked to sign this petition, but the person asking me totally mis-represented the facts: I didn't sign, but I wonder how many of those that have believed what they were wrongly told? Makes the petition less than worthless.

GD wrote:

Islands warned on redundancy pay

More than 2,500 people signed a petition calling for redundancy pay A Guernsey politician has warned against introducing mandatory redundancy pay in the Channel Islands. Pressure is on politicians in Jersey and Guernsey following the closure of Woolworths which which has left more than 200 jobless. The staff are not eligible for the UK statutory redundancy payouts as they do not apply in the Channel Islands, so Jersey is debating its own scheme. But Deputy Francis Quinn believes a scheme could rebound on Jersey. 'Two-edged sword' He told BBC News: "How may times have companies taken people on and trained them, at great expense to the company, then the person quite rightly goes somewhere else to better themselves? "There's never any comeback to the employer when someone walks out of their job so, I am sorry, but it's a two-edged sword. Who pays the bill?" A scheme is being considered by Jersey States to set aside £140,000 for victims of the closure of Woolworths in King Street, St Helier. More than 2,500 people have signed a petition calling for redundancy pay for the staff. Woolworths is due to close the last 200 of its UK stores on Tuesday. (from BBC News)

Remember not to vote for him next time.

Why? Seems like a sensible statement to make.

Spirit wrote:Why? Seems like a sensible statement to make.

Because i believe employees who have served many years service deserve some form of compensation when made redundant.

http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/employment-legislation/employment-guidance/page15686.html#When_is_a_redundancy_payment_due


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/Redundancy/index.htm


Regulations like the above help the working class person in time of need and support.

Chok Dee Ja wrote:Because i believe employees who have served many years service deserve some form of compensation when made redundant.

They are entitled to a redundancy payments (at least in Jersey), but the trouble is in this case they're being made redundant by a company that, at least according to the accountants, have no money to meet their obligations.

The fact is there is and was no tax-payer fund system in place in Jersey, and everybody knew that.

If we want to consider putting a system in place fine, but we'll have to pay for it, and it would be wrong to pay out tax-payer funds to Woolworth staff now as a special case.

Do you think if the UK government did not have a system already in place people working for Waterford/Wedgewood/Wittards/etc. and the tax-payer at large would be okay with £47,000,000 being given away to the Woolworth staff?

The staff are owed, but there apparently isn't anything left to pay them with, although I find that had to believe unless there's been some dodgy accounting going on in preperation for insolvancy.

My view is that laws should already have been in place.

The uk does i think have a facilty were people who are made redundant can claim from the goverment if their employers have no funds


I agree with your last sentence,i find it hard to believe there are no funds available.

The comment Quinn makes about training staff who move on is valid but he forgets that if I train staff at great expense and the staff move, I then employ staff from another company that have been trained by that company at great expense so I still have a member of staff who is trained and someone else paid for the training, it is swings and roundabouts.

Redundancy and in the case of Woolies, company collapse, are a bit different. As has been said above Woolies has no funds (apparently) so it can't pay however if a company decides some staff are surplus to requirements and lays them off through no fault of the staff, then there should be a redundancy package. I was made redundant 3 months ago and got 10 weeks pay for 14 months employment, 8 weeks for the first year and 2 weeks for every subsequent year/part year. Redundancy for me was a bit of a shock cause it is virtually unheard of in Gsy but I am working with people who have been made redundant 2-3 times and it is considered a way of life. Redundancy was in my contract when I signed up. Perhaps Islanders should start looking to the redundancy clauses in work contracts in future.

A REDUNDANCY fund which would compensate workers if their firm went into administration should be fast-tracked through the States, Social Security Minister Ian Gorst said today.
Speaking after Woolworths workers in Jersey were denied a redundancy package, Deputy Gorst said that he would ensure that the establishment and administration of an insolvency fund was given urgent consideration.
Staff at the store in King Street hit the national headlines this week after they were told that they would receive no compensation following the collapse of the high street giant last month. In the UK, the Statutory Redundancy Scheme guarantees compensation payments to workers if their company goes out of business — but no such scheme applies in Jersey.
More than 6,000 Islanders have now signed a petition asking for Woolworths staff to be compensated following a three-day protest outside the store
However, it is not clear whether any future redundancy scheme would be retrospective and therefore apply to Woolworths staff.
Will Guernsey follow?

RECENT redundancies could force the States to review employment laws to bring Guernsey into line with the UK and the rest of Europe.
Commerce and Employment will be be reviewing the issues over the coming weeks.
‘Naturally, redundancy will be covered in these discussions. Further comment will be made by the department once these deliberations have taken place,’ said a spokesman.
That will not help the more than 70 people who were put out of work following the collapse of Woolworths but could safeguard employees in the future.
There is some legislation in place. If an employee feels they have been unfairly dismissed they can take their plea to an industrial tribunal and be awarded up to six months’ salary. In the UK, there is no upper limit.
‘We have got a degree of employment protection in one sense but if a company closes down in the UK, assuming the firm has money when it goes into administration, employees will get a redundancy payout,’ said Advocate Mark Dunster (from thisisguernsey)