Deputy Peter Roffey, the new president of Employment & Social Security, said the initiative was a personal goal at this stage, which he would be discussing with his new committee.
‘I think it’s fairly shameful that we are one of the few places anywhere in the Western world where people who are made redundant don’t have any statutory protection.
‘Good employers may follow redundancy schemes and very often if they’re UK employers with a branch here they will follow their national policy, but there’s absolutely no requirement to give any kind of redundancy pay whatsoever to people who are laid off in Guernsey.
‘You’ve got the ludicrous situation that a Channel Island company could shed, say, 20% of its staff across both islands, and in Jersey they would have to make significant redundancy payments to their staff and in Guernsey they won’t be obliged to pay a penny.’
Many of the priorities for ESS are projects which have rolled over from the previous term, including boosting the affordable housing stock, finding a solution to the funding crisis facing long-term care, and getting anti-discrimination legislation into the law books.
But Deputy Roffey said they would also be looking at new initiatives to tackle local poverty.
For instance, a ‘root and branch’ investigation will be carried out into income support to look at the ‘basket of goods’ that the payment is based on.
‘If it comes out that there should be a significant increase in income support at this challenging financial time then that’s going to be quite a conundrum for us. We don’t know if it’s going to come out that way, but that will be interesting.’
The word that kept popping up as Deputy Roffey set out his priorities was ‘unpopular’, although he seemed to relish the challenge of it all.
Later this month ESS is asking the States for permission to increase non-contributory benefits, such as income support, in line with inflation.
But the challenge will be whether States members will allow the cap on income support to rise from £850 to £890 per week.
That would be the maximum amount that a family could receive when combining earnings, other benefits and income support.
There are currently 21 families affected by the cap and considered to be living in poverty.
Deputy Roffey said the debate will be a barometer of the new Assembly’s stance on important issues.
‘It will be an interesting test of where the social policy instincts of the new States are. It’s not a massive sum of money involved, but it will be an interesting indication of people’s attitudes.’
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