A DIVERSITY organisation has called for reforms to the Island’s discrimination laws, wanting higher compensation awards and better legal support for claimants in what it describes as a bid to “address workplace discrimination and incentivise employers to follow the rules”.
The Jersey Community Relations Trust is a not-for-profit, grant-funded organisation tasked with promoting equality, diversity and community relations in Jersey.
In its latest annual review, the charity has made several recommendations on how to create a fairer and more effective system for addressing workplace discrimination in Jersey.
Specifically, the trust called for improvements to current discrimination legislation and the functioning of the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal, which is responsible for resolving employment-related disputes and discrimination claims in the Island.
In the report, the JCRT said: “Since 2014, relatively few applications to the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal have progressed to a full hearing.”
The JCRT report continued: “For example, in 2022, the employment tribunal received 82 applications, of which only 33 progressed to a full hearing.”
The report also criticised the maximum award cap on discrimination claims, pointing out that most cases were settled out of court with claimants often required to sign non-disclosure agreements
“The maximum award at Jersey’s tribunal is £10,000 (in total),” says the report.
“As such, most cases are settled out of court by employers making the claimant an offer, and usually on the condition that they sign a non-disclosure agreement.
“This provides little incentive for an employer to comply with the law, nor take the learning that a case heard at tribunal might encourage them to do.
“Effectively, it means that the law, as it stands, does not achieve full justice for the claimant.”
To address this, the JCRT has suggested several changes to the Discrimination Law to ensure that it is “more effective in eliminating discrimination”.
The trust suggested that religion should be included as a protected characteristic in the law.
It also proposed “significantly more substantial awards at tribunal” beyond the current £10,000 cap, which it described as “perhaps more in line with UK legislation”.
Finally, the JCRT suggested there should be more legal support for lower-income claimants.
The Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal’s latest annual report shed more light on discrimination issues in the workplace.
The report revealed a slight increase in discrimination claims to 87 last year.
