Union concerned over ‘growing push to remove redundancy payment law’
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Vincent Morrison, the president of the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), has raised concerns over what he says is an increasing push from the private sector to have the notice on redundancy pay law removed.
“There is a push from the private sector — and I wouldn’t be surprised if the government of the day supports the private sector 100 per cent in this push — to remove the notice on redundancy pay law from the books. There have been talks about labour reform, and I think this is one of the main issues that will be coming up during the course of next year,” Morrison told Observer Online recently.
The Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act governs the legal requirements for redundancy pay, also known as severance pay. The Act states that an employer must make redundancy payments to an employee when their job is no longer required or when the employer can no longer justify the employee’s employment.
Morrison pointed to a proposal made years ago for a system where both private and public sector employers would contribute to a fund that would provide compensation for workers laid off due to restructuring, retrenchment, or redundancy. He noted a similar system in place in other countries in the region.
However, Morrison strongly cautioned against any changes to the current redundancy payment law stating, “I would want to warn very strongly that nothing should be done to change the existing Act.”
For the UCASE president, the only change he would hope to see is the removal of taxes on redundancy payments.
“It’s really unwise for us to have workers paying taxes, both income tax and indirect taxation during their working life and they have lost their jobs, and having lost their jobs, the little compensation they get for losing their jobs, they have to turn around again and pay tax,” Morrison said.
“I think it’s a form of double taxation and I am strongly calling on the authorities to have a look at that,” he continued, adding, “I’m calling upon the Parliament to have a look at this…I’m calling upon the opposition to move this motion in the House to have the tax on redundancy payments removed.”
