FURIOUS Woolworths staff have criticised States Members after they controversially refused to back a compensation plan.
But there is still hope that former staff members will get almost £140,000 in compensation for the notice period they should have been given under Jersey employment law. The workers had hoped that States Members would vote yesterday on whether to accept a proposition to pay them up to £239,500 in redundancy and notice payments. But yesterday morning, following almost seven hours of debate on the proposition, Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf successfully proposed that Members end the debate without putting the matter to the vote.
The 30-18 vote in favour of moving to the next debate means that Members will have time to check the numbers before the proposition is debated again – but it also leaves the workers out of pocket.
In a statement issued to the press, the workers have called the States’ decision to use the procedural device to end the debate without a vote ‘deplorable’.
Social Security Minister Ian Gorst, who condemned administrators Deloitte for their ‘uncaring attitude to workers’ in his speech on Tuesday, has told staff that if they hand over their claims for notice period pay to the States, they will take the matter to court for them. That offer was made public only after St Lawrence Constable Deidre Mezbourian asked questions during the States debate on Tuesday.
Deputy Geoff Southern, who lodged the original proposition for compensation that was being debated, has now lodged a second proposal to pay out the notice money to staff. He wants the States to give them the cash – estimated at just under £140,000 – and then go after the administrators to claim it back in court.
• Picture: Former Woolworths staff with their petition outside the old store yesterday. Picture by Jon Guegan (00613045)
