Employment Law advice
Here to help keep you on the right side of employment law
Your employees are critical to the success of your organisation. It makes sense to protect them, and there's plenty of regulation to ensure everyone is treated well at work. However, employment law is often complex and regularly updated. Keeping on top of these changes can feel like a never-ending task. That's where we can help by:
- Reducing the risk of claims
Our highly qualified consultants will assist with all your employment law needs from recruitment to termination and everything in-between. - Supporting you to prepare for a tribunal
We'll help you prepare necessary documentation both leading up to and for representation during an employment tribunal. - Managing tribunal costs
Not only are tribunals time-consuming, but they can also be expensive. We can arrange an Employment Practices Liability Insurance Policy to enable your business to manage the cost.
How our employment law team can help
Our highly qualified employment law consultants are on hand to support you. We'll provide hands-on and commercially viable advice and assistance, either face-to-face or by phone and email. We'll help you navigate legislation and put in place procedures to protect you, your employees, and your business.
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Human resources and employment law service
HR and employment law: external management support for your business
One of our employment law consultants will operate as your external human resources department. They can:
- prepare contracts of employment, employee handbooks and ensure job descriptions are kept up to date
- provide your business with a named advisor
- provide help and assistance when dealing with complex issues relating to staff employment, including grievance, disciplinary, absence, TUPE, redundancy and termination
- ensure that all contracts, handbooks, the advice provided and case files are contained within your online interactive platform Mercury
- provide advice in writing
- provide 24/7 cover
- provide an indemnity for costs and awards arising from an employment tribunal.
Professional employment law advice
Our team of experts will give you practical advice on specific issues your business may face relating to HR management or employment law. This includes researching and investigating the situation if necessary.
Compliance review and contract support
We'll carry out a compliance review to ensure your business's core documents are fully compliant and up to date. We can also draft and provide the following documents tailored to your business needs:
- contracts of employment
- employee handbooks
- job descriptions.
On-site consultancy
If you need help with a specific human resource management or employment law issue, our consultants will visit your business to work through the situation. Our tailored and personal approach includes support in disciplinary procedures, grievance procedures, redundancy, restructuring of terms and conditions of employment and managing change within the business.
Employment tribunal support
The support we offer for employment tribunal services involves negotiations and representation on all employment issues. This includes redundancy, unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal, TUPE, all types of discrimination: Disability, Race, Sex and Age etc.
Specialist resources and training
You'll have access to an employment law document library to support you in your decision-making process. We can also help you by carrying out a gap analysis to identify areas where your team would benefit from additional specialist support. Should your team need upskilling in any areas, we're here to support you.
Dealing with ACAS early conciliation and preparing for tribunals
If you find yourself in a situation where the employment relationship has broken down, or there has been an application for ACAS early conciliation, we're here to help.
Our consultants will guide you through the process and carry out negotiations through ACAS to reach a satisfactory conclusion on your behalf.
We understand preparing for a tribunal can be time-consuming and stressful. Our consultants will assist you with documentation leading up to a tribunal. Where appropriate, we can respond to and prepare tribunal documentation up to and including representation at an employment tribunal.
Not only are tribunals time-consuming, but they can also be expensive. Our employment law assistance service can be supported by an employment practices liability insurance policy that protects against employment tribunal compensatory awards and representation costs. This gives the benefit of being able to fix the costs associated with employment tribunal claims whilst also giving you the flexibility to depart from best practice when the time is right.
Frequently asked questions
Entitlement to annual leave is calculated in accordance with the Working Time Regulations 1998, which specifies that workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks annual leave.
Holiday pay should be based on an employee’s normal remuneration. All types of overtime, including voluntary, must be included when calculating a worker's statutory holiday pay entitlement, apart from overtime that is only worked on a genuinely occasional and infrequent basis. Commission and certain other types of payments should be included.
We can advise and calculate (providing practical examples) the entitlement for your employees or workers and, subject to the appropriate earnings information, the amount of holiday which should be paid.
There are statutory requirements as to what information should be given to an employee in relation to terms of employment. As an employer, you are legally obliged to provide a basic written statement of the main terms and conditions, also known as the particulars of employment, within the first two months of an employee’s start date. That said, many employers tend to include additional clauses to help support the growth of the business and provide necessary clarity and consistency for both parties. It is also important to comply with the minimum statutory requirements in terms of pay, hours of work, annual leave etc.
We would suggest reviewing your employment contracts and handbook every 12 months, to ensure that they remain up to date and in line with the relevant legislation.
We can draft, review and update employee contracts and an employee handbook, tailoring this documentation to meet the needs of the business. We can also provide advice and assistance in relation to contractual changes and how to implement these within your business, helping to reduce the risk of potential claims.