Reference no: EM133157870

Case #1

Jane is a full-time Administrative Assistant at XZY Limited for five (5) years now. She is currently 27 years old and is happily engaged to her high school sweetheart. She has no children and plans to become a mother shortly after getting married.

She got married in 2019. Unfortunately, Jane did not get pregnant shortly after getting married as planned; however, she and her husband, Joe, were still trying to have a baby. In January 2021, while on vacation, Jane found out that she was pregnant and was very happy. At the end of her 2-weeks' vacation, Jane decided to advise her immediate supervisor, who is her friend, of the good news. 

Two (2) weeks prior to her delivery date in September 2021, Jane schedules an appointment with you, the HR Manager, so that she can apply for her maternity leave. 

1. Is Jane entitled to maternity leave and why?                              
2. Advise Jane of the length of her maternity leave.                                         
3. Jane is concerned about when her maternity leave allowance will be payable. Please advise Jane.                                                                                                        
4. Jane asked you if her vacation leave can be used to extend her maternity leave. Advise Jane if this is possible and how vacation leave is to be granted according to the current Holidays with Pay Act (Jamaica).                                                   

Case # 2

Instructions: Read the following Case Study then answer the questions that follow. 

Jerry's Paper Products, a company specializing in custom- made gift boxes, unique greeting cards and other paper products has been in operation for over twenty years. In recent times the custom made gift box division has been experiencing a decline in sales locally due to a flood of cheaply produced and imported gift bags from China. There have also been rumours that the company was about to lose its, suppliers' contract with a high-end overseas department store whose gift registry used Jerry's unique gift boxes exclusively. A few weeks after the rumours began the CEO, the company's Legal Representative and the General Manager called a staff meeting with the twenty employees of the division and confirmed their worst fears. At the meeting the CEO indicated that after much consideration a decision was made to close down the division and so employees would be given letters of termination with immediate effect. He pointed out that the Trade Union was advised of the decision and also promised that the provisions of the relevant labour laws would be applied. After the initial staff meeting, he called the two supervisors both with the longest years of service and offered to rehire them in another division of the company. He stated that their re-engagement would be exclusively on a one-year contractual basis. 

Based on your knowledge of Jamaican Labour Laws:- 

a). Identify and explain the stipulations of the relevant labour law (s) that would apply to the above scenario (6 marks) 

b). Advise the workers of their entitlements based on the following years of service: (25 marks) 

• Four employees under two (2) years of service - 
• Four employees with four (4) years of service - 
• Three employees with eight (8) years of service -
• Seven employees with fourteen (14) years of service - 
• Two employees with twenty-two (22) years of service

Case # 3 

The Mother and Child Hospital is a private hospital situated in the hills of Manchester. It has a bed capacity of 514 and a staff complement of 1980. The staff complement consist of 40% nurses, 20% doctors, 5% ancillary, 15% Administrative and 5% professions supplement to medicine. The hospital is experiencing serious financial difficulties largely due to the downturn in the Global economy. 

At the last Board Meeting, the decision was taken to downsize the workforce and outsource some of the services currently performed by permanent staff. This information has sent panic waves throughout the organization as all staff are talking is the impending redundancy exercise. The majority of the staff are members of the union. There are several staff members who have some major concerns as

set out below:

a. Five female members of staff are pregnant.

b. In the last two years a number of the staff were employed on a contractual basis

c. One female attendant who joined the organization on March 1, 2021, is due to give birth on and around February 28,202

Question

1. You are the Union officer of the Union that is assigned to the hospital. Advise the staff on their rights under the Employment Termination and Redundancy Payments Act (ETPRA).  

Question 4

List three Acts that address compensation in Jamaica and explain what aspect of compensation each addresses.