Top 5 Employment Law Tips for Employers

Our Employment Team can offer guidance and we can help you to find the right solution, whatever the nature of your enquiry.

Here are our top 5 tips for avoiding employment law problems in the first place:

1. Do review your contracts and staff handbooks

Whether this is from time to time or when a new member of staff begins work, it is a good idea to review contracts and staff handbooks and make sure that they comply with current employment law requirements. Remember that it is important to ensure that you have the right terms and conditions in place before any issues arise and to protect you in the future.

For instance, did you know that there is certain information that you need to provide to all new employees within 2 months of them beginning employment?

You also need to think about including garden leave clauses, payment in lieu of notice clauses and any post termination restrictions at the outset.

We can help you to review your terms and conditions and draft these for you.

2. Do think about your Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures

Conflicts in the workplace can affect morale and staff performance and also result in your involvement in time consuming meetings and even costly litigation. You should have a written grievance and disciplinary procedure in place and ensure that these are fairly applied and readily accessible to all staff.

A failure to follow your own and indeed the ACAS Code of Practice could result in a finding that you have unfairly dismissed an employee and an award of compensation against you. A tribunal can award compensation of up to £65,300.00 (from February 2010) for unfair dismissal so this not something that you should overlook.

Ascot Lawyers can help you to draft your disciplinary and grievance procedures. We can also help you to deal with any problems that arise in your workplace and offer guidance on the best way to deal with them. We can offer advice about and draft compromise agreements, which could settle an employment dispute with an employee.

3. Do make sure that you know how to deal with Flexible Working Requests and other family friendly rights

Many successful companies have embraced a family friendly culture and found that this boosts staff morale and contributes to a low staff turnover.

All pregnant employees who meet certain criteria, are entitled to 52 weeks statutory maternity leave. You must pay them statutory maternity pay and you must be aware that their contract of employment continues (with the exception of wages). Similarly, paternity leave is available to the partner of a woman who has given birth, subject to certain qualifying criteria. If you get this wrong you could deny staff important statutory rights and even face an employment tribunal claim. We can help you to draft your policies and deal with staff already on leave.

Employees with at least 26 weeks continuous employment can ask you to work flexibly so that they can care for a child under 17, certain adults or a disabled child under 18. This could involve a request to change their working hours, working times and/or a change to their place of work.

As an employer you must take any such requests seriously and follow a set procedure and timescale for responding. If you fail to do so the employee could complain to an Employment Tribunal and could receive an award of up to 8 weeks’ pay. There is also the risk of a discrimination claim being made if you do not get the decision right.

We can guide you through the requirements for dealing with any family friendly rights.

4. Do know how to calculate staff holiday entitlements

If you fail to do so you could be in breach of contract or in breach of the Working Time Regulations and employees could claim against you for an unlawful deduction from wages.

There have also been some recent developments in the law concerning holiday entitlements for staff on long term sick leave.

We can advise you on the correct amount of annual leave you should offer your staff, including part time and casual workers.

5. Do all you can to protect yourself against discrimination claims

Employers should be aware that there are many categories of discrimination in English Law, including on the grounds of sex, race, disability, religion, age, part time status or fixed term status. An unlawful act carried out by one of your staff in the course of their employment could result in you becoming liable under the doctrine of vicarious liability.

You need to show that you have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the discrimination occurring and this includes having an equal opportunities policy and training staff.