Where workers' rights are 'hidden'

The following feature was first published in Landworker magazine – you can read the latest edition here.

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It’s always a good time to visit Jersey, say the adverts, trying to attract holidaymakers to enjoy the delights of the Channel Island.

But migrant workers are finding it increasingly difficult to have a good time because of the lack of employment rights on the island.

Improving workers’ rights formed part of Labour’s manifesto for the UK general election – to a certain extent at least, and now a campaign is being stepped up to win similar rights for workers on Jersey, especially migrants.

The campaign was given a huge boost following the election of Unite member Beatriz
Porée (pictured) to the States Assembly, the first time a black woman has served on the island’s Parliament.

She already has a reputation as a hardworking and welcoming businesswoman after establishing the popular Market Juice Bar in the central market of St Helier.

Now she is pressing ahead with trying to achieve a fairer society on Jersey that she believes should focus on social and economic justice.

She told Landworker there was “very little concern” about the welfare of the thousands of migrants working on Jersey.

“The current visa system is written in the name of the employer. Workers become the property of their employer while they are here, which is wrong. They cannot move jobs or find other work, and often discover that their contract of employment is not what they thought it would be before they travel here.”

She describes it as a “power imbalance” which she is determined to change.

“We are putting finance before people. Migrant workers start paying social contributions as soon as they arrive, but if they only stay for a few months, they are not able to benefit. There is no healthcare protection for migrant workers.”

Beatriz set up a review panel aimed at improving welfare for migrant workers, which made a number of recommendations to the government.

She is also greatly concerned at the rising cost of living and the effect on the wider economy, saying, “The cost of housing in Jersey is a great contributor to poverty. As someone who has lived in rental accommodation for the majority of my time in Jersey, I feel that we need to develop better balanced rental regulations, both on private and social housing. “This must be dealt with if Jersey is to keep a strong workforce necessary to ensure that the Island’s economy is supported.”

As a Portuguese citizen, originally from Angola, she is passionate about seeing the States of Jersey better reflect the island’s population, and full of praise for the support she receives from Unite.

She made a guest appearance at a Landworker event at this year’s Tolpuddle
Festival in July, in a perfect example of how the Martyrs’ historic struggle for better pay and conditions is still relevant today.

Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, just off the Normandy coast between England and France. A self-governing dependency of the United Kingdom, with a mix of British and French cultures, it’s known for its beaches, cliffside walking trails, inland valleys and historic castles. All very lovely. But Beatriz says the lack of employment rights is “hidden under the floorboards.”

The Jersey War Tunnels complex, a former German military hospital relentlessly excavated out of the living rock by slave labour, documents the island’s traumatic five-year occupation by the Nazis during WWII.

Eighty years on there are some people who feel migrant workers are being treated as slave labour because of their derisory pay and poor standard of accommodation.

James Turner, Unite’s regional officer on Jersey, has witnessed first-hand some of the appalling living conditions migrant workers have to endure.

“I have seen people living in cramped rooms, sleeping top to toe in a small bed. Employment rights are nowhere near as strong as in the UK or other European countries,” he told Landworker.

“Migrants need a permit to work on Jersey, usually for nine months, but they are strictly geared to the employer not the employee. Contracts signed in another country can change when migrant workers arrive here, so they have to work for six or seven days a week, often with unsocial hours.”

Despite the poor living and work conditions, James says workers are too afraid to speak up. They often work in low paid jobs, mainly agriculture or hospitality, but also in cleaning, the health service as well as manual employment – arriving from countries including Uganda and Thailand.

An estimated 15,000 migrants can be working on Jersey at any one time, compared with the island’s population of 100,000, showing their importance to the local economy.

James believes the election of Unite’s Beatriz is a big boost to the campaign for migrant workers’ rights, one Unite is determined to win.

Unite regional secretary Steve Preddy said, “The absence of supportive workers’ rights in Jersey is of huge concern to Unite. It should be a concern to all fair-minded people. The profound impact is felt by indigenous and migrant workers.

“Unite committed to support Reform Jersey 10 years ago. In June 2022 Beatriz became the first woman of colour elected to the States Assembly, one of 10 Reform deputies. The [South West] region will work steadfastly in collaboration with Reform and all those who share our values in the fight for social justice and fairness at work, for all in Jersey,” he added.

By Alan Jones

You can read another featured article from our latest edition of Landworker magazine here.