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Employment law and HR
The landscape of employment law is ever changing. We help clients to navigate this rapidly evolving area of law cost-effectively, providing accurate advice, support and guidance tailored to your specific needs.
Our employment lawyers work with both employers and employees across the UK and regularly deal with clients from London, Birmingham and Manchester to advise and resolve employment law issues.
People are a significant asset within any business and, like any asset, they need to be supported and managed effectively and efficiently.
Our employment law solicitors work with employers like you, across a wide variety of industry sectors to help avoid and manage issues and protect and defend your business should the need arise.
Our expertise
Latest employment legislation
Employment law is an ever-changing field, and any breach, inadvertent or otherwise, can be draining on your business, both financially and operationally, given the management time often required to rectify these issues. The support and services we provide enable us to ensure that you are up to date with the latest legislation by reviewing or creating all of your essential staffing contracts, staff handbook, policies and procedures and providing tailored advice where it is needed.
With the law regularly updating, and new cases being decided daily, we produce a monthly e-bulletin which will keep you updated with any major changes or milestone decisions. You can sign up to receive our e-bulletin here.
Managing performance
Performance can be one of the most challenging aspects of managing people, and it shouldn't just be left until the annual employee review. The challenges you face when you're dealing with an individual’s performance or ill-health can put a strain on your business, so it is crucial to have plans in place from the outset.
Performance and capability policies are designed to improve the standard of performance and ensure that standards are consistent across your business. These policies can be a great tool in your armoury when dealing with performance issues as they offer a benchmark to work to.
Performance issues due to sickness or short-term absences can be far trickier to deal with. It's advisable to have a clear absence management policy, which is applied across your business and is accessible to all employees.
"Ian Besant is highly experienced in discrimination claims and regularly appears in the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal. "He is very diligent and has great in-depth knowledge,"
Grievances
Conflicts in the workplace will happen. Employees will encounter problems, concerns and issues that they feel need resolving. Some of these can be resolved informally, and if necessary by following a grievance policy that has been designed specifically for your business. However, if things escalate, it's important to seek an early resolution to try and avoid any disruption to your business, and the costs and stress of having to involve the Employment Tribunal.
The ACAS Code of Practice sets out the requirements for dealing with grievances. All employers are required to act fairly and in a reasonable manner when dealing with grievance issues.
By having a clearly defined grievance procedure, it will be clear to all employees the process you will go through to address their concerns. As with all policies, your grievance policy and procedure should be reviewed periodically to ensure that they remain compliant,are updated in line with any changes made to employment law and continue to suit the needs of your business.
Our advice on managing grievances is tailored to you and is specifically designed to achieve a resolution quickly to minimise the time and risks to you and your business. We can provide you with an external HR consultant to assist with these processes and chair and necessary grievance meetings if required, we are also happy to provide your management team with tailored training on how to manage grievances.
"Ian Besant regularly advises on tribunal claims including whistle-blowing and discrimination. "He's able to understand the commercial realities of what we're doing,"
Restructuring and redundancy
Businesses restructure for many reasons, to downsize, to cut costs or to concentrate on other product lines and markets. In many cases, this involves making some employees’ roles redundant to avoid the business going into administration.
It is essential as an employer to ensure this process is carried out fairly and legally. For example, if you're making up to 99 employees redundant, you need to start the consultation process at least 30 days before the first redundancy takes place. For over 100 employees, this changes to 45 days.
You should always seek legal advice from a qualified employment lawyer on this process, including the option to request voluntary redundancy and to understand whether TUPE applies. Seeking advice will ensure that the risk of any employment tribunal claims is minimised. If you require any advice in relation to proposed redundancies then please do not hesitate to contact any of the member of our employment team who would be happy to discuss this with you.
TUPE
TUPE (“Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006”) can be a complex area of employment law, and one that most employers overlook. However, it is crucial that employers are aware of their obligation and liabilities under this complex, but frequently engaged piece of legislation.
There are several scenarios where TUPE applies, for example, when a business or part of it, is sold to a new employer. TUPE is designed to protect the original rights and terms and conditions of the employees before and after the sale.
Our lawyers specialise in TUPE work, supporting the TUPE aspects of the transactional work undertaken by the commercial, corporate and social housing teams. We have advised both purchasers and vendors in company acquisitions, sales and outsourcing transactions and the team is particularly experienced in advising registered providers on the TUPE implications of LSVTs.
Tribunal claims
Defending employment tribunal claims is a stressful and time-consuming period. Our employment solicitors are experienced in dealing with any employment disputes and are able to guide you through the tribunal process from start to finish, gather evidence, and provide you with practical steps on how to progress matters.
The most frequent disputes in an employment scenario are unfair dismissal and constructive dismissal, redundancy, discrimination and bullying.
Before submitting a claim, all employees have to follow the ACAS Early Conciliation (“EC”) process. This gives both you and your employee a chance to resolve the dispute without the need to go to the employment tribunal. Our employment lawyers have a wealth of experience in handling the ACAS EC process, and would be happy to provide you with any assistance you may require.
If the ACAS EC process is unsuccessful, and the employee does proceed with a claim, it is advised that you seek legal advice quickly. You have to respond to the employee’s claim within 28 days and it is vital that you do not miss this deadline and that the defence you submit is fit for purpose.
We can assist you in responding to the claim by assisting you to complete the ET3 response form including the specific particulars of your defence, ensuring all the details and facts are captured. We can also assist in gathering and preparing witness statements and evidence to support your defence.
We work with a wide variety of clients, ranging from SMEs and start-ups through to global organisations and public sector bodies. In the event that an employee does submit a claim against your business, we are well placed to guide, advise and assist you seamlessly through the tribunal process.
We have defended a wide range of cases on behalf of both corporates and senior directors involving an extensive range of issues such as whistleblowing, unfair dismissal, discrimination on the grounds of religious belief, age, race, sex and disability as well as TUPE dismissals.
Disciplinary issues
Disciplinary issues involving employees are never something that should be taken lightly. ACAS set out clear guidance on following a reasonable procedure when considering disciplining an employee.
It’s wise to have a disciplinary policy and procedure in place as part of your overall people management toolkit. Your policy should set out the exact steps to be followed should a disciplinary situation arise.
However, with or without a policy, you still have to abide by the four-stage process so that, no matter what the outcome, you can demonstrate you have followed a fair procedure. This process includes; conducting an investigation, informing the employee of the allegations against them, having a formal meeting with them to allow them to respond, and giving them the right to appeal against any outcome.
It is essential to deal with cases requiring disciplinary action as soon as they arise to avoid the situation spiralling and to protect your business, it is also part of a fair procedure to deal with issues promptly. Knowing the right steps to take can save you time, and mean you avoid a claim being brought against your business. If you require advice or support in respect of a potential disciplinary issue, the our employment lawyers are on hand to help and guide you through the process.
Settlement agreements
A settlement agreement is used to bring a contract of employment to an end without the risk of the employee bringing a claim in the employment tribunal against you; you offer them a “sweetener” in the form of compensation and they agree not to pursue the business in respect of any potential claims they may have. Settlement agreements are usually comprehensive, well-drafted documents that list out all the possible claims to indemnify the business against them.
Our employment law solicitors can work with you to negotiate the terms of the settlement agreement, the amount offered as part of the agreement and ensure details such as post-termination restrictions are covered to protect you from ex-employees taking current and future business or key personnel from you. If you are considering offering an employee a settlement agreement our employment law solicitors can guide you through the process and can draft the agreements for you to issue.
Pricing transparency
Employment tribunal
Quality assured: Wright Hassall is Lexcel accredited, the Law Society’s legal practice quality mark for practice management and client care.
The cost of running a tribunal depends on the complexity of the case: *complex cases involving multiple witnesses and extended documentation will, inevitably, cost more than straightforward cases where the employer has followed a fair process (based on the Acas Code of Practice) and has a genuine reason for dismissing the employee. Conversely, where it is clear that an employee has been unfairly dismissed because the employer did not follow fair process, this would also be considered straightforward.
What is involved in taking a case to tribunal
Representing an employer: An employer defending a claim from an employee for unfair dismissal or discrimination will have to invest more time and money than the employee, even if the case is straightforward. This is because more people are involved (in the investigation and hearing stages) and an employer will have more contractual documentation to be reviewed. Employers also need to remember when defending a discrimination claim that, if the tribunal finds against them, compensation payments are uncapped.
Representing an employee: An employee bringing a case for unfair dismissal or discrimination is likely to have less contractual paperwork to sift through and there are usually fewer witnesses involved (for instance those carrying out the investigation will appear on behalf of the employer, not the employee). Therefore the overall cost may be lower than that for an employer; nonetheless the complexity of the issues involved will determine the final cost.
The prices outlined below are indicative only and based on a tribunal case being run with a combination of junior and senior lawyers whose time will be apportioned depending on the complexity of the case.
The details
*Complex cases
The complexity of a case depends:
- on the number of witnesses and documents involved;
- issues around a claimant’s disability;
- allegations of discrimination;
- whether the case is constructive unfair dismissal or unfair dismissal;
- claims linked to whistle-blowing; unlawful deduction of wages, and wrongful dismissal;
- whether an application has to be amended or additional information about an existing claim is required; and
- making or defending a costs application.
Indicative fee scale
NB: the costs outlined below are based on our hourly rates (which vary according to the seniority of the lawyer involved) and the price range reflects the complexity of a case and apply to both employees and employers.
| Average range of prices (including VAT) |
| From | To | |
| Straightforward case | £6,000 | £9,600 |
| Above range is based on our hourly rates: £270 - £330 (including VAT) | ||
| Medium complexity case | £8,400 | £12,000 |
| Above range is based on our hourly rates: £330 - £366 (including VAT) | ||
| High complexity case | £12,000 | £24,000 |
| Above range is based on our hourly rates: £330 - £366 (including VAT) |
|
The above prices exclude costs payable to a third party, such as a barrister. The disbursements payable will be the use of counsel (barrister) to attend the tribunal. Barristers’ rates vary according to their experience but, on average, are approximately £1000 (excluding VAT) per day. |
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Timescales On average it takes approximately 12 months from lodging a claim to the tribunal hearing but this timing is wholly dependent on the directions set by the Tribunal and the hearing date. The tribunal will list the hearing and cases can be listed for 1 – 5 days (or more) depending on the number of witnesses and complexity of the claim before it. |
| Face to face review meeting | Price (including VAT) |
| Initial meeting to discuss the scope of claim, including review of documents prior to the meeting. | £425 |
You can find out more about the status of your claim, and what constitutes fair process, by checking the Acas Code of Practice on the Acas website.
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