Termination of Employment – Minimum Periods of Notice (Jersey) Law 1974

Jersey Law 10/1974 TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT - MINIMUM PERIODS OF NOTICE (JERSEY) LAW, 1974. ____________ 1 Interpretation 2 Minimum Period of Notice 3 Computation of Period of Employment 4 Change of Employer 5 Rights of Employee 6 Savings 7 Power to Amend Law 8 Citation A LAW to require minimum periods of notice to be given by employers or employees to terminate an employment and to make provision for related wage payments, sanctioned by Order of Her Majesty in Council of the 5th day of JUNE, 1974. ____________ ( Registered on the 12th day of July, 1974 ). ____________ STATES OF JERSEY. ____________ The 22nd day of January, 1974. ____________ T HE STATES , subject to the sanction of Her Most Excellent Majesty in Council, have adopted the following Law: - ARTICLE 1 INTERPRETATION In this Law, unless the context otherwise requires – “collective agreement” means an agreement which has been settled by machinery of negotiation or arbitration to which the parties are organisations of employers and of workers representative of substantial proportions of the employers and workers engaged in the trade or industry concerned; “lock-out” means the closing of a place of employment, or the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him in consequence of a dispute, done with a view to compelling those persons, or to aid another employer in compelling persons employed by him, to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment; “strike” means the cessation of work by a body of persons employed acting in combination, or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons employed to continue to work for an employer in consequence of a dispute, done as a means of compelling their employer or any person or body of persons employed, or to aid other employees in compelling their employer or any person or body of persons employed, to accept or not to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment. ARTICLE 2 MINIMUM PERIOD OF NOTICE (1) Subject to the provisions of Article 6 of this Law, unless otherwise agreed by the employer and the employee at the time of an employment commencing or unless there exists a collective agreement to which the employer is a party and by which an employee by reason of being an employee of such employer is covered as to his terms and conditions of employment, in any case where an employee works for an employer for a minimum of twenty-one hours a week the minimum period of notice to be given by either the employer or the employee to terminate such employment shall be one week. (2) Subject to the provisions of Article 6 of this Law, the notice required to be given by an employer to terminate the employment of a person who has been continuously employed for twenty-six weeks or more – ( a ) shall be not less than one week’s notice if his period of continuous employment is less than two years; ( b ) shall be not less than two weeks’ notice if his period of continuous employment is two years or more but less than five years; ( c ) shall be not less than four weeks’ notice if his period of continuous employment is five years or more but less than ten years; ( d ) shall be not less than six weeks’ notice if his period of continuous employment is ten years or more but less than fifteen years; and ( e ) shall be not less than eight weeks’ notice if his period of continuous employment is fifteen years or more. (3) Subject to the provisions of Article 6 of this Law, the notice required to be given by an employee who has been continuously employed for twenty-six weeks or more to terminate his employment – ( a ) shall be not less than one week’s notice if his period of continuous employment is less than five years; ( b ) shall be not less than two weeks’ notice if his period of continuous employment is five years or more. (4) Where notice is given on a pay day the notice shall commence from that day, and otherwise shall commence from the next following pay day on which an employee would be ordinarily or customarily paid. ARTICLE 3 COMPUTATION OF PERIOD OF EMPLOYMENT (1) Except so far as otherwise provided by the following provisions of this Article, any week which does not count under paragraphs (2) to (5) of this Article breaks the continuity of the period of employment. (2) Any week in which the employee is employed for twenty-one hours or more shall count in computing a period of employment. (3) Any week during the whole or part of which the employee’s relations with the employer are governed by a contract of employment for twenty-one hours or more weekly shall count in computing a period of employment. (4) In any week the employee is, for the whole or part of the week ( a ) incapable of work in consequence of sickness or injury; or ( b ) absent from work on account of a temporary cessation of work; or ( c ) absent from work in circumstances such that, by arrangement or custom, he is regarded as continuing in the employment of his employer for all or any purposes, that week shall, notwithstanding that it does not fall within paragraph (2) or (3) of this Article, count as a period of employment. (5) If a period of employment has been terminated by dismissal or otherwise and another period of employment is created by re-engagement the two periods will be regarded as one period if they are linked by up to twenty-six weeks during which the employee is incapable of work in consequence of sickness or injury. (6) Sub-paragraph ( b ) of paragraph (4) of this Article shall not apply to a temporary cessation of work on account of a strike in which the employee takes part. (7) A week shall not count under paragraphs (2) to (6) of this Article if in that week, or any part of that week, the employee takes part in a strike. (8) The continuity of an employee’s period of employment shall not be broken by a week which does not count under this Article if in that week, or any part of that week, the employee takes part in a strike. (9) The continuity of the period of employment is not broken by a week which does not count under this Article if, in that week, or any part of that week, the employee is absent from work because of a lock-out by the employer. ARTICLE 4 CHANGE OF EMPLOYER (1) Subject to the provisions of this Article and of Article 5 of this Law, the provisions of this Law relate only to employment by the one employer. (2) If a trade or business or an undertaking is transferred from one person to another, the period of employment of an employee in the trade or business or undertaking at the time of the transfer shall count as a period of employment with the transferee, and the transfer shall not break the continuity of the period of employment. (3) If on the death of an employer the employee is taken into the employment of the personal representatives of the deceased, the employee’s period of employment at the time of the death shall count as a period of employment with the employer’s personal representatives and the death shall not break the continuity of the period of employment. (4) If there is a change in the partners or personal representatives who employ any person, the employee’s period of employment at the time of the change shall count as a period of employment with the partners or personal representatives after the change, and the change shall not break the continuity of the period of employment. (5) If an employee of a company is taken into the employment of another company which, at the time when he is taken into its employment is an associated company of the first-mentioned company, his period of employment at that time shall count as a period of employment with the associated company and the change of employer shall not break the continuity of the period of employment. ARTICLE 5 RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEE (1) The remuneration payable during the period of notice by an employer or recoverable by him where an employee terminates the employment without the requisite notice provided for by this Law shall be that which was applying immediately before the notice to terminate the employment was given by the employer or the employee left without giving the requisite notice, as the case may be. (2) Where bonus payments or gratuities of any kind have been agreed at the time of commencement of an employment as forming part of an employee’s remuneration, to be paid either weekly or at other intervals or periods of time, an employee shall be entitled to receive a pro rata payment at the termination of his employment unless such employment has been terminated by the employer under the provisions of Article 6 of this Law or the employee agreed at the time of commencing the employment or before the coming into force of this Law that no bonus or gratuity nor any part of such bonus or gratuity would become payable to him until after a specified period of employment had been completed, and he himself terminates the employment before completing the specified period. (3) Where an employer and an employee have agreed a scale of paid holidays to operate during an employment – (a) an employee shall be entitled to receive, on termination of that employment, such proportionate part of the paid holiday as he has not already taken under the agreed scale or be entitled to receive payment in lieu equivalent to the holiday pay calculated at plain time rate that he would have received had the paid holiday been taken immediately before the employment terminated: Provided that the employee shall not be so entitled in any case where the employment is terminated by the employer in the circumstances mentioned in paragraph (3) of Article 6 of this Law; (b) if an employee having taken his paid holiday in any year terminates the employment during that year the employer shall be entitled to receive from the employee payment equivalent to the pay of the employee calculated at plain time rate during that proportion of the holiday period as the unexpended part of the year bears to the whole year. ARTICLE 6 SAVINGS (1) Nothing in this Law shall apply where a fixed term apprenticeship or a fixed term contract of employment is entered into by an employer and an employee. (2) Nothing in this Law shall affect the right of either party from waiving his rights to notice or from making or accepting payment in lieu of notice. (3) Nothing in this Law shall affect the right of either party to terminate the employment without notice if the behaviour of the other justifies such termination. (4) Nothing in this Law shall have effect on and after the day next following that on which an employee attains the age of 65 years in the case of a male and 60 years in the case of a female. ARTICLE 7 POWER TO AMEND LAW The States may by Regulations amend any of the periods of time, whether expressed in hours, weeks or years, mentioned in this Law. ARTICLE 8 CITATION This Law may be cited as the Termination of Employment – Minimum Periods of Notice (Jersey) Law, 1974, and shall come into force on the first day of January, 1975. E.J.M. POTTER, Greffier of the States.