CAYMAN ISLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Daniel Lee, Sophia Scott, Kimberly Robinson and James Turner, Maples Group
• safeguard the health, ensure the safety, contribute to the welfare and provide special protective meas - ures for employees as specified; • notify the Director of Labour of major industrial accidents and any occupational disease involving employees; • not discriminate; and • provide certain minimum employee entitlements including: (a) an hourly minimum wage of KYD8.75 (USD10.67); (b) paid vacation leave (the amount depends on length of service); (c) public holiday pay; (d) up to ten paid sick leave days annually; (e) paid maternity and adoption leave; (f) at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in each seven consecutive days; (g) overtime pay for hours worked in excess of a standard workday/week; and (h) specified advance notice of termination of employment except for certain good causes. Redress for unfair dismissal may be sought before the Labour Tribunal. An employee is not precluded from bringing a common law action before the courts, though any Labour Tribunal compensatory award would be deducted from any court damages. The Workmen’s Compensation Act (As Revised) provides for the payment of compensation by the employer to any workman who suffers personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employ - ment. This is an insurable risk and is normally covered by an employer’s insurance. 4.2 Characteristics of Employment Contracts While the Labour Act does not require that an employ - ment contract be entered into between an employer and an employee, the Labour Act requires an employ - er to furnish each employee with a written statement of working conditions containing the following infor - mation: • job title, a brief statement of the general respon - sibilities and duties of the employee and of any special requirements or conditions of the job;
• regular hours of work, together with any particular terms or conditions relating to the hours of work; • rate of remuneration, or the method for calculating it; • intervals that remuneration is paid; • in the case of employees whose pay is normally stated on some basis other than hourly, the hourly equivalent save that in the case of persons remu - nerated wholly or in part by commission, the rate of commission should be stated; • period of employment, if other than indefinite; • period of probation, if any; • employee’s holiday entitlement or the method for calculating it; • employee’s entitlement to sick leave; and • length of notice the employee is obliged to give and is entitled to receive to terminate the contract of employment. 4.3 Working Time There is no minimum or maximum working time appli - cable to salaried employees. 4.4 Termination of Employment Contracts Employer’s Notice Unless the contract of employment is for a fixed term, or the dismissal is for good cause, misconduct, or failure to perform duties in a satisfactory manner, eve - ry employer must give advance written notice to an employee whose employment it intends to terminate: • For an employee still serving a probationary period, at least 24 hours’ notice must be given. • In all other cases, the period of notice must be at least equal to the interval between pay days (eg, if paid every two weeks then two weeks’ notice must be given). However, notice need not exceed 30 days in any circumstances, unless the employment contract provides for longer notice. Once appropriate notice is given, the employer may terminate employment early provided the employee is paid for the notice period. This is subject to severance pay and unfair dismissal provisions. An employee whose employment is terminated by the employer for any reason shall receive payment
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