Employees are a very valuable part of your business. As all employers know, they can also give you the biggest headache if things go wrong. Action which may seem entirely reasonable and fair to an employer may not be in line with what is required by law so that the employer’s actions or failure to act in any given circumstance may give rise to a substantial claim by the employee. Things that appear simple such as calculating a day’s pay for holiday purposes can in fact be highly complex. All of our employment solicitors have significant experience in dealing with employment issues and can take that headache away for you.
We believe that prevention is better than cure. We much prefer it if our clients call us first to check what they propose to do so that we can give them advice on how best to proceed. We will draft letters, prepare scripts for disciplinary, grievance or other meetings and even attend meetings with you where appropriate. We also advise on procedures such as restructuring, disciplinary and dismissal and generally hold our clients’ hands when necessary. Unlike some other employment advisers we won’t tell you that you can’t do what you want to do and leave it at that; we will advise you what the risks are of undertaking the action you propose and how best to minimise those risks or, if possible, circumvent them. Should you receive a tribunal claim or notification of an ACAS conciliation then we are able to advise you on the best way of minimising the cost of defending it and, of course, saving your time in having to deal with it.
We also prepare employment documentation for our clients, including contracts of employment and policies and procedures, so that the terms of the employment relationship are clearly understood on both sides leaving less room for misunderstandings.
Training also forms part of the service we offer our employer clients so that managers are aware of the basic principles of employment law in areas such as disciplinary and discrimination and able to supervise employees in accordance with it.
Whilst we mainly act for employers, we do advise employees too. Most of our employee clients are senior executives and we advise them on their service agreements, restrictive covenants, share option schemes and exit arrangements, including settlement agreements.
