PLANS brought forward by the UK government to make salary information compulsory on all job adverts could also be introduced in Jersey, the Economic Development Minister has indicated.
Deputy Gerald Voisin has told the States Assembly he sees “no problem” with the idea of copying the pro-worker legislation, which was announced by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham last Friday.
In a statement, Mr Burnham presented the new legal requirement by arguing that young people “should know what a job pays before spending [their] time and effort applying for it”.
He further contended that preventing employers from withholding salary information, as is often currently done, would help close the gender pay gap.
Deputy Voisin appeared to voice his approval for the proposed legislation in response to a supplementary question put to him by Deputy Alex Curtis yesterday.
“On the surface, if it is just providing information on gender pay scales, I see no problem with that”, he told the St Clement representative.
But he added that the government would need to examine the realities of the new law “carefully” before committing to it.
“Very often when regulations are introduced, there are the unforeseen disbenefits that come out of the woodwork when these regulations are put in place,” he told the Chamber.
His comments followed a sequence of questions from States Members interested in the Minister’s position on workers’ rights, following his controversial interview with BBC Jersey on 5 November.
“It’s very nice to be able to give workers greater rights but if it’s doing that at the cost of economic growth, then I think it has to take second place for the time being”, he was reported as having said by the BBC.
Deputy Hilary Jeune asked the minister to advise on whether he planned to repeal or amend existing employment protections he sees as impeding economic growth.
“A strong economy should provide good, secure employment; fair treatment and opportunities for people to progress workers’ rights have a vital part to play in that”, he said.
Deputy Voisin explained that the comments reflected the need to ensure that “new regulations” being considered by the government do not inhibit economic growth.
He told the States Assembly that the government would be doing a “disservice” to the workers of Jersey if it did not focus on growing the economy.
The minister stated that – in the case of legislation such as the ‘say what you pay’ legislation formulated by Mr Burnham – a balance needed to be struck between “benefit to the employees” and “any potential downside to employment”.
