Rights and responsibilities under the new Labour Law
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from February 1988.
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The new law applies to everyone, apart from government workers, charities and churches, though casual workers and domestics not need to be given a statement of working conditions and companies with less than ten employees do not need to keep employee wage records. After the law comes into effect, employers and employees will have certain rights and responsibilities.
In the next few days the Compass will publishing a series of articles to help everyone obey the law.
Statement of working conditions
Employers have 30 days after the law comes into effect to give present workers, excluding household domestics and casual workers, a written statement of working conditions. New employees must be given a statement within ten days of starting work. Staff whose existing contract already sets out the information required, such as job title and description, hours, pay, probation period and employment period (if any), holiday and sick leave entitlement, and notice period, do not need to be given new contracts. A sample copy produced by the Department of Trade and Labour and circulated to employers is reproduced at right. Probation period Probabation periods of up to six months are allowed, during which an employee must be trained. If the employee agrees, the probation period may be extended for a further six months. Probationary employees can have their employment ended with twenty four hours notice. If an employer decides not to offer the probationer a job at the end of the probation period, the probationer can request a written explanation as to why not, and may send a copy to the Director of Labour.
Leave, sick leave and maternity requirements do not apply to probationers, but if a probationer is offered a permanent job, the probation period is included in calculating his length of service.
Termination of employment
Notice periods
Normal notice periods are equal to the period between pay cheques--one week for weekly paid, two weeks for fortnightly paid, etc, up to one month, unless contracts of employment specify otherwise. An employer must give adequate notice, but if he decides he does not want the employee to work during the notice period, he may pay the employee instead.
Employees who don't give adequate notice can either be dismissed early or forfeit earned vacation pay. If requested, an employer has fourteen days to provide a certificate stating the date of starting and ending work, and type of job to an ex-employee. Severance pay Except where employees resign, or have been fired for serious misconduct, all employees with more than one year's service are entitled to severance pay at the rate of one week's wages for each year employed, up to 12 weeks pay.
Generally, the severance pay must be paid at once, but if an employer says the termination of employment is less than six months temporary--such as laying off staff during a slack period--no severance pay need be made. (If the lay-off becomes longer than six months, the employee is entitled to severance pay.)
If an employee given severance pay is re-hired, that re-hiring will be taken as a new term of employment in calculating any future severance payments.
Employees rights to severance pay are protected if the company is sold, and severance payments are the first which must be made by the liquidators if a company goes bankrupt.
Employers must keep records of the dates of hiring and termination of employment, and make this available to the employee on request. (As the law comes into force, employers and employees must agree on hiring date if there is no record of this.)
Disputes about severance pay may be referred to the Director of Labour. Unfair dismissal The provisons on unfair dismissal only apply to employees with more than six months service who are not probationers.
Employees are not unfairly dismissed if: They are on a fixed contract which has expired. * They are guilty of serious misconduct. * They have received a written warning for misconduct in the past 12 months They are made redundant * Continued employment would breach any law * Any other "substantial reason" which would entitle a "reasonable employer" to dismiss them. An employee being drunk, illegally drugged or immoral at work, or committing a criminal offence, or "conducting himself in such a manner as to clearly demonstrate the employment relationship cannot be expected to continue" are all defined as the kind of serious misconduct which could lead to immediate dismissal.
For lesser misconduct--which includes but is not limited to absenteeism-a written warning may be given that a repetition in the next 12 months will lead to immediate dismissal.
Employers may give employees they no longer consider to be performing at a satisfactory level a written warning detailing expected improvement and what action will be taken if they do not improve. If this has no effect within a month, the employer may dismiss the employee without further notice. Complaints and compensation Employees who feel they have been
