States workers are not unsackable – Chief Minister

Thursday 19 March 2015

States HR policies have been defended by the Chief Minister after figures showed that just 60 staff have been sacked in the last five years – making Jersey’s dismissal rate less than a third of the UK’s.

Figures released to Bailiwick Express have shown that in a typical year, of the 8,350 States employees, just 12 are dismissed.

But Chief Minister Ian Gorst says that comparisons to the UK are useless and that there is no problem with the policies – but has said that disciplinary procedures were beefed up last year.

He said: “At recent tribunals, our decisions to dismiss have been upheld, indicating that where we choose this last resort, we have used the right process to do so.

“Last year we changed and simplified disciplinary, attendance, capability and grievance as part of the reform programme. In doing so we realised that there have been historical issues with the effectiveness of policies and have sought to address them.”

“Our policies are robust and used when circumstances merit. As a good employer, we always seek to resolve matters through counselling, advice and guidance first. Dismissal proceedings are the end of that line only in cases where we have been unable to change behaviour.”

His comments come after stats released to Bailiwick Express under the Freedom of Information Law showed that over the last five years, the rate of dismissals works out at around 0.14% of staff per year, much lower than the UK civil service rate of 0.5% per year.

They also showed that the rate is far lower than the most recent estimate for the UK dismissal rate across both the private and public sectors. A 2009 OECD report estimated the total UK dismissal rate at 3.6% - that would mean that workers in England are 25 times more likely to be sacked than a Jersey civil servant.