Research - Timeline of Family Friendly legislation - 12 March 2019

Scrutiny of P.17/2019

Family Friendly Legislation: Timeline

2000 - 2008

• P.99/2000 was lodged by the Employment and Social Security Committee and resulted in States approval of an employment legislation programme.

As part of the programme, the Employment and Social Security Committee were charged to develop measures to deal with maternity (amongst other areas)

The employment legislation programme was delivered in two phases.

• The  Employment  Forum  submitted  several  recommendations around  the employment legislation programme as part of phase 1:
  • 2001 - Unfair dismissal legislation
  • 2002 - Holiday entitlement and rest days
  • 2004 - Fixed term contracts and unfair dismissal
  • 2004 - Rest day entitlements and operational urgency

Phase 2 included work on maternity rights.

• In 2003, the States also approved the introduction of the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003
• The  Employment  Forum  subsequently  issued  other  recommendations  (in addition to maternity rights) as part of phase 2:
  • 2006 - Redundancy and business transfers
  • 2008 - Employment tribunal powers in unfair dismissal awards

• The  Forum  consulted  during  June  -  August  2007  regarding  the  introduction  of legislation on maternity, paternity and adoption leave, and family friendly, flexible working policies.

The Forum issued its recommendations to the Social Security Minister in June 2008 with the intention that the new rights would be introduced in 2 stages. Many of the respondents indicated that it would be excessive to introduce the full range of new family friendly related rights.

In his response, the Minister accepted the Forum's recommendations and indicated that the drafting of stage 1 of the proposed new rights would begin in 2010.

2008 - 2014

• It was intended that law drafting would begin in 2010 but, following the economic downturn, priority was given to introducing statutory redundancy pay and developing an insolvency scheme. Consequently, drafting of the first stage of family friendly rights was delayed until 2013/2014.
• In 2014, the Social Security Minister lodged  P.109/2014 "Draft Employment (Amendment No.8) (Jersey) Law 201-" which was the first stage of family friendly rights (as recommended by the Employment Forum in 2008). This proposed 18 weeks maternity leave.

The Proposition was accepted and was implemented at the same time as the sex discrimination legislation in 2015.

When the legislation was adopted by the States, a commitment was made to review the rights one year after they came into force. The Minister directed the Employment Forum to consult and make a recommendation by the end of December 2017.

• The Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny Panel undertook a review of P.109/2014 and commissioned Ogier to look at the proposals. In July 2014 the Panel issued Comments adding Ogier's report as an appendix. The Minister commented on the Panel's Comments.
• In P.109/2014 the Minister explained that he also lodged an amendment to the Social Security Law in respect of maternity allowance (P.106/2014).

2014 - 2019

• In December 2017, the Employment Forum made a recommendation to the Social Security Minister to extend family friendly rights. It was recommended that maternity leave should be extended from 18 weeks to 26 weeks (starting from September 2018) and then extended again from 26 to 52 weeks (starting from September 2019).
• The Minister for Social Security lodged P.21/2018 "Draft Employment (Amendment of Law) (No.2) (Jersey) Regulations 201-" in February 2018. This proposed, amongst other things, the maternity leave extension of 26 weeks (as suggested by the Forum in 2017).
• The Social Security Minister lodged  P.17/2019 "Draft Employment (Amendment No.11) (Jersey) Law 201-" in February which proposed, amongst other things, the parental leave extension of 52 weeks.