Employment law survey welcomed
Tuesday 26th October 2010, 2:29PM BST.
WORKERS, bosses and other relevant organisations are being asked for their views on whether Guernsey needs to strengthen its employment laws.
The Commerce and Employment Department yesterday launched a consultation to try to gather views on the island’s current employment legislation and whether it offers businesses and staff adequate protection.
Interested parties are being asked to fill out a questionnaire that deals with a variety of issues, including asking respondents to rank the potential need for legislation in terms of priority.
And that could include laws on race discrimination, statutory redundancy or statutory maternity leave. The Commerce and Employment board identified four areas that it believed needed further investigation – protection for women in the workplace, employment of children and young people, discrimination in employment and statutory redundancy and insolvency protection.
But minister Carla McNulty Bauer (pictured) said the consultation had the potential to widen the scope further.
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Excellent idea – I really hope that the creators of the survey also include a section on discriminstion against Disabled People. This should capture discrimination both in employment and during the recruitment process, as the potential for discrimination exists in both areas.
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Horrible idea – more laws = more red tape = more civil servants = more lawyers = more taxes = less money for Joe Public to spend or save as they desire.
Let’s have a reduction in laws and no new ones for the next 12 months.
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How about enforcing current laws. It is a legal requirement to provide every employee with a written contract detailing pay and conditions. The building trade in particular are exploiting workers by not giving them one and threatening to fire them if they complain. Inspectors check companies files every 20 years or so but they do not check the signatures saying the employees have received a contract are bona fide or ask the staff if they have one.
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Excellent idea but let’s just not limit it to UK policies. There are excellent employment legislations in other countries which in many cases are far more efficient.
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Interesting that Commerce and Employment has the Gall to pontificate on other employers when I was refused an interview on the basis that I am in my early fifties and received a letter and email telling me I am too old for the position
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Mark me up for the ‘Excellent ‘ crowd. Best idea I’ve heard since Stone de Croze broke his mallet. Go for it!
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Great idea. Our employment legislation is currently lacking and hopefully this will sort it out.
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Here we go again mindlessly following the UK and the rest of Europe and manufacturing problems in Guernsey that don’t exist in the first place.
The only way employment laws need reforming at the moment is to replace the lay employment tribunal with a legaly qualified one, which should lead to complaints being determined in a much more reliable and consistent manner.
And we certainly do not need any more discrimination laws.
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There certainly are problems although this is a perfect opportunity to tailor make employment legislation rather than follow a ‘one fits all’ approach of the UK.
Saint Marcouf why do we not need any more discrimination laws? we only have one. Sex discrimination. Before this was brought in I knew of companies who were dismissing staff when they got pregnant and had to leave to give birth. Astonshing. This was only a few years ago and not something that sounds like it belongs 40 years in the past.
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Whats with this MEntal Health Survey.. How much is that costing.. if like me you have taken this as an offense being chosen as one of 3000 random participants to take part, why me ? am i mental ? do I look mental ? My elderly parent had one.. thought i had been to doctor to get them committed ! its not on !!!
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Saint Marcouf:
Blindly following the UK? Did you actually bother to read the article before spotting an opportunity to berate the superior UK legal structure?
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Truthman: you are being cryptic so your point is lost on me.
Whatever you mean by the “UK legal structure”, I can tell you that UK legislation is not necessarily superior nor is it necessarily appropriate for a small island, particularly when it comes to employment law which is excessive, over complex and a bureaucratic mess.
Lynnie: there are all sorts of reasons why we don’t need any more discrimination laws.
Firstly, we don’t have a problem with discrimination in Guernsey that needs fixing with legislation which is expensive to make and enforce.
Secondly, discrimination laws severely erode freedom of choice and expression.
Thirdly, discrimination laws breed an unhealthy and undesirable culture of political correctness.
Fourthly, discrimination laws will only eat away at Guernsey’s unique culture and heritage even further.
I could go on but that’s enough.
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A balanced employment and discrimination protection legislation is always required as long as it is fair to all concerned and the legislation has to be tailor made by Guernsey for Guernsey, anything else simply would not work. On the point of political correctness since no one has had the integrity to confirm they invented political correctness, therefore in real terms it does not exist apart from in the heads of some political spin doctors and their ill advised politicamasters.
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