Darius and a different approach to Jersey employment

It is not unusual to treat employers as the bad guys when disputes with employees arise. In Jersey there are over 5,000 small businesses that have five or fewer staff.

Out of a total of 53,000 employed people there are about 800 wholesale and retail employers and Darius - who features in the 17 minutes video below - is in this category.
He runs a small retail business in central St Helier employing one or sometimes two staff.

Except that Darius has unusual views about his employees status because he would prefer that they were classed as "self employed" but of course, the Social Security Department does not share that view.

The difficulty that is described here came about because a young woman left employment with Darius following a dispute and took her grievance to JACS (the Jersey Advisory and Conciliation Service) from where it proceeded to a hearing before JET (the Jersey Employment Tribunal) via the Royal Court.

Because Darius considered her to be "self-employed" there was no contract of employment and so it was difficult to determine what "contract rights" if any, had been broken.

Like so many of Jersey's small businesses, workers are often employed under vague conditions and there is no Trades Union involvement.

We have been trying to monitor the hearings before JET which are supposed to be held in public but this hearing was not announced and we had no knowledge of it until it was all over. Except that the JEP had previously reported some aspects of the Court hearing months after if actually took place and in a manner which was not at all accurate according to Darius.

After many months, waste of time and cost to the public of £thousands the matter was finally resolved because Darius and his ex-assistant were willing to agree on a settlement of a payment of less than £500.

This Darius says, could have easily been achieved if only JACS had  been more reasonable at the outset.

We offer this interview with Darius to show that small businesses do have particular problems which may not be appropriate for JACS and JET to deal with as currently constituted. This is a viewpoint that the Jersey Chamber of Commerce seems to share and there is already a move to undo some Employment laws.
On the other hand we have observed instances where small businesses have treated staff very badly and that JACS etc provide a most important safety net  giving valuable support to people in very stressed circumstances.

We will try to find an ex-employee to interview in the near future to illustrate the other side of the problem but we note with some concern that employers - such as the States - often require job applicants to declare if they are involved in disputes with previous employers! This is hardly a climate to encourage workers to come forward to be interviewed for fear of being stigmatised in the job market-place.
Now that un-employment is rising in Jersey, potential employees are very wary of expressing any critical views in public...

We thank Darius for his time and frankness.