Employees could see compensation triple for contract breaches

Monday, 21 July 2025 at 12:08

New employment laws will strengthen protections and increase compensation for those whose employment rights have been breached.

Under new laws, employees who have had their employment rights breached will receive more protections and increased compensation.

They come into effect on Friday, 25 July.

The changes, approved by the States Assembly in April, follow recommendations made by the Jersey Employment Forum.

Key changes include:

Doubling the maximum award for breach of an employee’s statutory rights from four to eight weeks’ pay.
Increasing the compensation period for unfair dismissal from five to 15 years or more.
Raising the maximum award for financial loss and hurt or distress in discrimination cases from £10,000 to £30,000
Introducing a new requirement for employers to provide written reasons when dismissing an employee.

The Minister for Social Security, Deputy Lyndsay Feltham, says these are more appropriate levels of compensation:

"I would hope that this acts as a deterrent, and I would hope that all employers seek to be good employers.

"At the end of the day, we don't want to be in a position where employees are taking employers to tribunal."

Social Security Minister Lyndsay Feltham

She also says that these new measures benefit bosses as well as workers:

"Following those best practices is going to work out much better for employers as well.

"We're in a global marketplace for talent, and particularly younger people will be looking at practices which show that employers take issues like discrimination and treating their employees fairly [seriously].

"They'll be looking at those things before considering working for organisations."