"Little incentive" for employers to comply with discrimination law

Thursday 20 June 2024

A diversity trust has said that Jersey's current discrimination laws fail to deliver "full justice" for potential victims and allow employers to avoid meaningful consequences by settling cases cheaply and out of court.

The Jersey Community Relations Trust is a not-for-profit, grant-funded organisation tasked by the States of Jersey with promoting equality, diversity and community relations in the island.

The body is calling for reforms to the island's discrimination laws – including higher compensation awards and better legal support for claimants – in a bid to address workplace discrimination and incentivise employers to follow the rules.

In its recently published annual review, the Trust 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 the current discrimination laws and the functioning of the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal, which is responsible for resolving employment-related disputes and discrimination claims on the island. 

In this report, the JCRT said: "Since 2014, relatively few applications to the Jersey Employment & Discrimination Tribunal have progressed to a full hearing.

"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 are 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)," the report explained.

"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 suggested several changes to the island's discrimination law to ensure that it is "more effective in eliminating discrimination".

For example, the JCRT suggested that religion should be included as a protected characteristic in the law. 

The Trust also proposed "significantly more substantial awards at Tribunal" beyond the current £10,000 cap, which they 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 annual report revealed a slight increase in discrimination claims to 87 last year.

Pictured: More affordable legal advice would result in fewer people continuing with tribunal cases that have "little merit", according to a new report.

However, Chair Elena Moran said that affordable legal advice would result in fewer people continuing with tribunal cases that have "little merit" and put a "huge burden on employers".

She added that better access to cost-effective quality employment law advice would also help support claimants with claims that had a prospect of success.