Parental leave will be increased in accordance with planned changes to the Labor Law

Cabinet has approved the development of guidelines for long-awaited changes to the Cayman Islands Labor Law to increase benefits for private sector workers, from increasing parental leave to improving entitlements to holiday pay and overtime.

The Ministry of Labor has confirmed that work to promote the changes has already begun; however he reported Cayman Compass emailed that the instructions “have just been given, so there is still a lot of work to be done, including public consultation.”

The start date for this process has not been specified.

“Modernization of employment standards”

Labor Minister Dwayne Seymour, in a statement to a recent sitting of Parliament on the proposed changes to the law, said: “There is a need to understand the urgent need to modernize our employment standards to ensure that all workers on these islands benefit.”

He said the benefits the government intends to offer include increased benefits for pregnant women, mothers and fathers over parental and adoption leave, as well as improved holiday entitlements and overtime pay.

“These proposed changes are aimed at improving legislation to bring local employment standards in line with the Cayman Islands Government’s civil service standards, as well as the international labor reform standards of the International Labor Organization, in order to remain competitive in this rapidly changing global world. landscape,” he said.

Earlier this year, the government gave government employees increased parental leave benefits, but private sector workers were not given the same benefit as it would have required legislative changes.

Local advocacy group Parental Rights Task Force, which was formed to advocate for increased local parental leave benefits, has been calling for changes to existing benefits for some time.

Cayman Islands mom Bethany Ebanks-Pacheco of the Parental Rights Working Group met with Seymour more than a year ago to present the organization’s recommendations for change.

Compass Ebanks-Pacheco has reached out to Ebanks-Pacheco for comment on the latest developments and is awaiting a response.

Amendments to the Standard Conditions of Employment for Civil Servants in the Personnel Regulations that came into force in March increased the duration of maternity leave from 90 to 110 working days, and the paid part of maternity leave was increased from 30 to 60 working days with normal pay.

The total duration of parental leave increased from two working weeks to 20 working days, with one week with normal pay increased to 10 working days and the remaining week without pay.

Proposed Additional Changes

Seymour, in a statement to Parliament, said other key recommendations to improve legal employment requirements for all employees are proposed to address the need for employees to receive their employment contracts within 10 working days of the start date of their employment.

He said the changes should also take into account the need for employers to keep accurate records (such as hours worked, type of holiday taken and wages paid) for all employees, not just those where there are 10 or more people working as stated in the current Labor Code. Act.

In addition, the provision should be changed to allow employers to keep employee records for five years under the National Pensions Act, rather than two years under the Labor Act, Seymour said.

There should also be changes to the way claimants and/or appellants are awarded costs/expenses in cases they win in proceedings before the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Seymour said there was a need to “give the Department for Work and Pensions regulatory powers to impose administrative fines on non-compliant employers who have broken employment laws”.

The changes will also include the creation of secondary legislation outlining potential violations of the law and the associated administrative fines that may be assessed in each case.