Employment law is constantly evolving and being updated, so staying abreast of the latest developments is vital in order to avoid costly and time-consuming claims.
Employment law is constantly evolving and being updated, so staying abreast of the latest developments is vital in order to avoid costly and time-consuming claims.
We will work with you to focus on early intervention and prevention, looking to deal with issues at an early stage and before they escalate.
Non-compliance with employment law obligations can be disastrous for an employer. Not only can it be extremely costly, but it can also irreparably damage your company’s reputation.
Our specialist employment law solicitors can provide efficient, prompt and pro-active legal advice in relation to any employment law and HR issues encountered by your business.
We can represent you if your case is taken to court and we have an excellent success rate in employment tribunals and civil courts. However, sometimes the best and most cost-effective option is finding a solution outside of the courts and tribunals.
We will take the time to get to know your business, understand your requirements and objectives as well as strategic and operational needs, then work with you to achieve those aims whilst providing sound, pragmatic and cost effective solutions.
We have experience of working with a wide range of clients in a variety of sectors including agriculture, construction, creative industries, education, finance, food and drink, manufacturing, healthcare, professional services, retail, recruitment and charities.
Advice can be provided in several areas including:
Please see the sections below for more detail on some key areas:
It is a legal requirement that employers provide employees with a written statement of their terms of employment. This should set out the minimum terms governing the employment relationship and is the bare minimum that an employer must provide.
It is advisable for employers to provide a written contract of employment to an employee which includes the minimum legal terms. This is advantageous to the employer and employee. A written contract can include details of the ownership of intellectual property rights, confidentiality clauses and post termination restrictions.
It is advisable to ensure that you have concise, easy to follow and legally compliant policies and procedures, often included together in a Staff Handbook, some essential policies include:
How our Solicitors can help you:
Discrimination against workers has been a key and developing feature of employment law, with the Equality Act 2010 providing protection to staff and recognising the protected characteristics of gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, disability and age.
In a fast moving and evolving environment employers need to ensure that they and any mangers dealing with staff are up to date to minimise the risks of discrimination in the workplace. With successful Claimants potentially being awarded uncapped compensation plus the risk of reputational damage it will be invaluable to your business to ensure you are aware and prepared.
How our employment discrimination solicitors can help you:
Our expert solicitors can advise you on how to deal with these issues, support you with those issues and in defending discrimination claims, provide appropriate policies and procedures or provide staff training.
Post termination restrictive covenants are clauses that can be included in a contract of employment and are potentially lawful if you protect the legitimate interest of your business and go no further than is reasonable to do so. This is why ideally covenants should be tailored to your business and the role of the employee.
These clauses are designed to restrict the activity of employees once the employment relationship has ended and need to be drafted carefully to minimise arguments around enforceability . They are particularly important for senior employees or employees who have access to sensitive data or when employees have relationships with key clients or suppliers. The idea behind post termination restrictive covenants is to stop the former employee from using the data or relationship in their new employment to the detriment of their former employee.
We can design and draft bespoke covenants for you with appropriate targeted restrictions to minimise threats to your business. Alternatively, we can review and update current covenants.
Our team can also support you with the necessary steps to enforce restrictive covenants against employees.
If you are looking to make your business more efficient by restructuring and making staff redundancies our expert solicitors can guide you through the process. Often employers fall into the trap of using redundancy as a non-contentious way to end an employee’s employment contract. However, redundancy has a specific meaning.
Broadly speaking, redundancy situations fall into three categories:
Employers must follow a fair procedure, which includes consultation with employees, and adopt a proper selection process. An employer cannot necessarily avoid a claim for unfair dismissal merely because it can show that an employee was dismissed by reason of redundancy.
How our redundancy solicitors can help you:
In employment law, a settlement agreement (formerly known as a compromise agreement) is an agreement whereby an employee or worker agrees not to pursue certain employment claims against their employer, in return for which the employer will pay to the employee a sum of money.
For a settlement agreement to be legally binding the employee must obtain independent legal advice and an employer usually contributes towards their legal costs.
Settlement agreements can be used in a range of scenarios; commonly they are used when the employment relationship simply is not working but there are no real grounds for dismissal. In cases such as that, an agreement can be reached whereby the employee leaves in return for a one-off payment.
How our Solicitors can help you:
TUPE refers to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. The main effect of TUPE is to preserve continuity of employment, as well as terms and conditions of employment, of any employees who are transferred to a new employer when there is a “relevant transfer”.
It is imperative to give due consideration to TUPE in relevant commercial transactions. The specialist solicitors in Warners employment law team can advise you on all areas of TUPE and what due diligence should be undertaken. Often employment claims faced by businesses arise from failure to comply with the strict requirements of the TUPE legislation.
Our TUPE solicitors can advise you on:
Our expert employment law solicitors can advise you on the correct process when you need to dismiss an employee so that you can avoid being accused of unfair or wrongful dismissal.
Unfair dismissal
Every eligible employee has the right not to be unfairly dismissed by his employer. If an employer wants to dismiss an employee they must be able to show that, not only did they have a potentially fair reason to dismiss, but also that they acted fairly in doing so.
Potentially fair reasons include:
Wrongful dismissal
Wrongful dismissal occurs where a dismissal takes place in breach of contract. A claim for wrongful dismissal can be brought in either the Employment Tribunal or civil courts. If brought in the Employment Tribunal, it must be presented within three months of the date when the claim arose. A claim in the civil courts for wrongful dismissal, however, can be brought within six years.
How our unfair or wrongful dismissal solicitors can help you:
