Jersey Employers – Changes to employment rights and Combined Employer Returns for Jersey – what do Employers need to know?
With effect from 1 January 2022, there are a number of changes that have been approved for Jersey based employers/employees and these are summarised as follows:
1. Annual Leave & Public Holidays
- current statutory minimum of 2 weeks paid annual leave will increase to a minimum of 3 weeks paid leave each year.
- In addition, employees are entitled to paid leave on Christmas Day, Good Friday and on all Public and Bank Holidays for Jersey (or if the employee has been required by their employer to work, days off with pay in lieu of these, as specified in the contract of employment).
- NB: Christmas Day (25 Dec 2021) is a named public holiday and statutory provisions remain in place. There is an additional public holiday of 3 June 2022 for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the moving of the Spring Bank Holiday from Monday to 2 June 2022 (Thursday).
Actions for Employers:
- Employers should ensure that holiday entitlement is adjusted from 1 January 2022 to reflect the minimum requirements of 3 weeks paid leave.
- Employees on a zero hours contract must have an increase to their rolled-up holiday pay (currently 4%) to 6% as a minimum, which represents any holiday pay.
- Employers should notify employees of any changes*
2. Rest breaks
- There is currently no provision in the legislation.
- This change will see the introduction of the entitlement of an uninterrupted 20-minute rest break if an employee works 6 or more hours in any single work period. If an employee works a 12-hour shift, entitlement will increase to a 40-minute rest break, which may be taken as two 20-minute breaks.
- The employer may determine whether rest breaks are paid or unpaid and this should be set out in the terms of individual employment contracts.
Actions for Employers:
- The employer must provide details of the treatment of the break in the terms and conditions of employment and should review all policies and procedures to identify any provisions that may need to be updated.
- The employer has the right to decide whether or not the break is paid.
- Subject to the length of any shift, where an employer already offers an hour unpaid lunch break, they may not need to adjust their working practises or contractual entitlements.
- Employers should notify employees of any changes*
3. Minimum Wage Increases
- Minimum wage will increase to £9.22 per hour; year 1 trainees to receive a minimum of £6.91 per hour and year 2 trainees a minimum of £8.07 per hour.
Actions for Employers:
- Employers must ensure that adjustments are made with effect from 1 January 2022.
- Employers should notify employees of any changes (see below)*
Further details can be found on the JACS website: https://www.jacs.org.je/legislation/
*NB: Communicating changes to employees:
- Where any changes undertaken to policies & procedures are non-contractual, employers should update and circulate details to employees for their information.
- For all contractual changes, this can be done by way of letter to employees, seeking their consent to the changes necessary, which should align to their improved statutory rights.
4. Combined Employer Returns (CER) – ITIS/Social Security & Manpower reporting & contribution schedules.
- Currently, employers are required to submit their income tax, social security and manpower information on separate reports at different times (monthly, quarterly and bi-annually respectively). From January 2022, employers will be required to submit a Combined Employer Return (CER) every month, which will include all three on the same return.
- The deadline for the first return for January 2022 will be 15th February 2022.
- A law has been passed to make payroll administration easier which will see the current ‘8 hour rule’ with a minimum earnings limit. If the employee reaches the threshold then you must pay the primary and secondary contributions. The threshold that you use is determined by the frequency that you pay your employee.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
- If you are already a payroll client of Focus HR – we will make this change automatically on your behalf.
- All Employers should ensure that correct social security numbers and tax identification numbers (TIN) are held for each of their employees and confirmed to their payroll provide, especially any new starters and prior to any payroll cut-off date in that month, along with confirmation of the employee’s residential status in Jersey.
- NB: If there are any errors in the employee details upon submission to Jersey Revenue, the whole file will be rejected and will not be processed.
Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.je/TaxesMoney/Businesses/Pages/CombinedEmployerReturn.aspx
The Focus HR team can provide support to help employers navigate through these changes, including drafting of and/or revisions to Employee Handbooks & Employment Contracts to ensure you remain compliant and up to date. If you would like to know more details of the additional HR services available, please get in touch with Helen Myers, Head of Jersey at [email protected] or for Payroll queries, contact the Focus Payroll team at [email protected], to discuss your requirements.