Recruitment drive to increase Army Reserve numbers

Thursday 16 January 2014

The Jersey Field Squadron is encouraging Islanders to become reservists as part of a national drive to increase personnel to 30,000 by 2018.

Jersey’s TA is using unusual recruiting techniques, including a charity bake-off in the Royal Square to raise funds for local charity Holidays for Heroes.

The campaign has led an employment law specialist to warn that in the absence of law or guidance, local employers should consider introducing provisions to govern staff absence when called to service. Employment rights for reservists were the subject of recent consultation by the Jersey Employment Forum, to inform a potential law to provide job security.  

Colette Hunt, a senior associate at Channel Islands law firm Collas Crill, said accommodating absences may not have been much of an issue to date, but if numbers doubled, the potential disruption could act as a deterrent to employing a reservist.

She said: "Currently, if a reservist who is resident in Jersey is called up, they have no protection regarding the job they are in when the period of service commences. They depart not knowing whether they will have a job to return to."

In the absence of legislation an employer could face a claim for unfair dismissal if they did not respond reasonably to a Reservist's request to respond to a call out or who refuse take them back to the same job, or on the same terms and conditions.