Carey Olsen Starting Point Employment Law Guide ' Jersey Employment Law

• Published date: 12 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Contract of Employment, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, Unfair/ Wrongful Dismissal, Employee Benefits & Compensation, Redundancy/Layoff
• Law Firm: Carey Olsen
• Author: Ms Siobhan Riley, Huw Thomas and Tarina Le Boutillier

Carey Olsen Starting Point Guides are intended as a general introduction and guide to different aspects of Jersey law. They are a summary of the most important issues that we come across. It is very much the edited highlights of those issues. If you would like legal advice in relation to any specific circumstances, please do give us a call.

This Starting Point Guide provides a brief overview of Jersey employment law.

Introduction to Jersey

Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands and is a British Crown dependency. It has its own financial legal and judicial systems. It is not part of the UK or of the European Union (although it has close relationships with both).

Sources of Jersey Employment Law

The duties of Jersey employers and employees derive from a number of sources which include:

• statute;
• Jersey customary/common law; and
• employment contracts and other documentation.

There is less employment legislation in Jersey than in the UK, although the amount of legislation in this area is increasing.

There is a Jersey Employment Tribunal (the "Tribunal") which hears employment related claims. The Tribunal has a limited jurisdiction in relation to contractual claims and generally will only deal with contractual claims of up to '10,000. Larger claims are dealt with by the Royal Court of Jersey. The Jersey law of contract is somewhat different from the English law.

However, when it comes to employment contracts, the Jersey courts and tribunals have generally (although not exclusively) had regard to English law and principles - particularly when it comes to implied contractual duties.

In general, employment law in Jersey is heavily influenced by English case law and so it is often the case that English cases relating to employment law will be cited before the Tribunal or Courts in Jersey. Whilst English law heavily influences the development of employment law in Jersey, a company should be careful to ensure that it obtains Jersey employment law advice in relation to any employees working wholly or mainly in Jersey. This is because there are some important differences between the two jurisdictions.

The Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 (The "Employment Law") and the Discrimination (Jersey) Law 2013 (The "Discrimination Law")

The Employment Law and the Discrimination Law are the key statutes governing Jersey employment issues. The following is a summary of their key provisions.

Who is an employee?

The Employment Law applies to both those employed under a contract...