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Sections

Employment Service

The Employment Service offers a Job Centre facility that works to ensure that all registered unemployed persons are provided with every opportunity to secure suitable employment. Staff assist in matching unemployed persons with notified vacancies and facilitate job interviews with potential employers.

Business & Employer Registration

All businesses, trades and professions are required to be duly registered. Employers must register any vacancy arising within their establishment before seeking to engage a person as a worker and must notify the engagement of a worker not later than the day on which that engagement commences, by way of a 'Notice of Terms of Engagement'. Employers are also required to notify the termination of employment within 7 days of date of termination, allowing the registration unit to compile the relevant statistics on to Gibraltar's labour market.

Work Permits

Persons who are not entitled to work in Gibraltar (e.g. non-EEA nationals, see note below) will require the prospective employer to request a Work Permit before commencement of employment. Various conditions need to be met by the employer before approval can be granted for the issue of a Work Permit. A Work Permit is issued for a period not exceeding 12 months. Failing to secure a work permit for any persons not entitled to work in Gibraltar is an offence and a fixed penalty notice of £3,000.00 may be issued to the employer.

(Note: Swiss nationals do not require a work permit to work in Gibraltar)

Labour Inspectorate

Labour Inspectors enforce the statutory provisions of the Employment Act and its subsidiary legislation. These provisions may apply to annual leave, sick pay, redundancy payments, notice periods, minimum wage, specific industry group conditions of employment, issue of pay slips, etc. Under the Employment Regulation (Offences) Act, Labour Inspectors will issue fixed penalties that can range from £750, for an employer's failure to register a termination of employment, to £3000, for failing to register a vacancy, engagement of a new employee , the request for a work permit or the registration of a Detached Worker. The Labour Inspectorate constitutes a valuable source of information to employers and employees regarding compliance with rights and obligations as set by employment legislation.

Insolvency Fund claims

The Insolvency Fund is intended to allow employees to claim payments due to them (such as pay, annual leave, notice periods, etc.) that have gone unpaid due to their employers' insolvency. Insolvency includes cases where an employer ceases to carry on the business or trade in which the worker was engaged. An application for payment from the Insolvency Fund must be made to the Labour Inspectorate as soon as possible and strictly no more than thirty days after the employee becomes aware of the employer's insolvency.

Health and Safety Inspectorate

Health and Safety Officers, appointed under the Factories Act, are responsible for enforcing the act's provisions and subsidiary legislation. The Inspectorate is tasked with several functions, but their main role is to ensure that work places comply with statutory Health and Safety provisions and standards. Non-compliance can result in the imposition of an 'improvement notice' or even a 'prohibition order' that will, in effect, bring work operations to a standstill, until such time as the Health and Safety Inspectorate is satisfied that safety standards have been complied with. The inspectorate is further empowered to investigate accidents occurring in the workplace, with investigations sometimes leading to prosecutions Health and Safety Officers constitute a valuable source of information to employers and employees regarding rights and obligations as set by Health and Safety legislation.

Employment Tribunal

The Employment Tribunal is an independent tribunal that adjudicates legal disputes concerning employment law. It is independent of His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar and will listen to both the person making the claim and the person against whom a claim is made before it makes a decision. Although an employment tribunal is not as formal as a court, it must comply with rules of procedure and act independently.

The Employment Tribunal is administered within the Department of Employment however, hearings before the Tribunal may be held at different locations.