Growth requires 'difficult decisions' - minister

Improving workers' rights might have to take "second place" if it stands in the way of economic growth, a government minister has said.

Deputy Gerald Voisin was speaking after appearing with other ministers at an Institute of Directors lunch at which they shared their priorities for the economy and business community.

Unite the Union said it was "particularly distasteful for any workers' rights to be impacted for the sake of economic growth" while Reform Jersey also criticised Voisin's comments as "unfortunate".

According to Statistics Jersey, in 2025 the economy fell in real terms by 1.7% while experts who advise the government said this summer that they expected a further fall in 2026.

Asked by the BBC what he considered to be a healthy annual economic growth rate, Voisin said: "I think we should be targeting a 3% growth".

In order to achieve that, he said, "difficult decisions" would have to be made.

"We are going to have to make decisions that some people may feel hinders other objectives, for example, workers' rights," he said.

"I mean, it's very nice to be able to give workers greater rights but if it's doing that at the cost of economic growth, then I think it has to take second place for the time being."

He said: "I think... our appetite for risk needs to be increased and we also need to rebalance the scales of risk and reward for businesses.

"We want businesses to establish themselves and we want existing businesses to grow.

"The big businesses of tomorrow are probably the small businesses of today."

In reaction to Voisin's comments, James Turner, Unite's regional officer for Jersey, said it would be "particularly distasteful" for workers' rights to be impacted.

He said workers' rights in Jersey already fell short of other jurisdictions such as the UK and Europe.

"Many recognise that where workers are paid a living wage... it actually boosts the economy," Turner said.

He said it was important to have "strong anti-discrimination laws, tribunal awards for mistreatment of employees and rights for parental leave" in place "to ensure a fairer system, not one weighted purely for business profits".

Deputy Montfort Tadier, the co-leader of political party Reform Jersey, said the comments made by Voisin about workers' rights were "unfortunate".

Tadier said: "I think it unnecessarily pits workers' rights against businesses.

"I don't think the two are mutually exclusive and actually what we want to see is economic success in Jersey shared by the whole community.

"We don't want to see economic growth on the back of exploitation."

Tadier said growth needed to "act in the interests of all islanders".

He said: "People are really feeling it in their pockets at the moment and that's not just the lowest paid and people who are struggling at the bottom end, it's middle Jersey feeling that they're struggling when it comes to the end of the month.

"And we need to properly diversify our economy... but the point is that isn't done on the back of workers' rights."

In response to the comments from Tadier and Turner, at 16:00 GMT on Thursday, Voisin issued a new, written statement.

"I want to make clear that I do not believe economic growth should ever come at the expense of workers' rights. These are fundamental protections and I am not proposing a reduction in existing workers' rights," he said.

"This is not a binary choice between economic growth and workers' rights. A strong economy should provide good, secure employment, fair treatment and opportunities for people to progress. Workers' rights are a vital part of that.

"My comments were about the lack of growth Jersey has experienced in recent years and how the Government needs to find the right balance when it considers adding new regulations to the statute book.

"Our aim should be to create the conditions in which businesses can grow and employ more people, while ensuring workers are properly protected and treated fairly."

Planning Minister Sir Mark Boelat said the government was moving some of the barriers, in particular for businesses who wanted to bring in people from outside the island.

"That process is now very much simpler," he said.

"I'm doing what I can on planning but we have to recognise that there are many barriers to business, of which regulation is just one."

Boleat said the system needed to be reviewed.

"There's no attempt or no wish to remove any regulation that's going to jeopardise health and safety or workers' rights, that's not on the agenda," Boleat said.

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