General Employment Law Support
From recruitment to retirement, dealing with workplace incidents, tackling absenteeism, managing disciplinary hearings and dismissing staff, there is seemingly no limit to the variety of workplace issues that need to be addressed on a daily basis by employers. Sometimes there may be a relatively straightforward answer to a developing problem, more often than not however there are usually a range of options, each one having different consequences.
In most cases workplace issues are spontaneous and unforeseen, and require an immediate but measured response – organisations therefore need to be confident that any employment law advice is immediately accessible.
Recruitment advertisements must be non-discriminatory, as do job application forms and other employee screening tools. Managers need to have an awareness of interview techniques in order to avoid discriminatory questions or innuendo. Undertaking immigration and criminal record checks, together with understanding spent convictions, all form part of the recruitment mix.
In what circumstances should employers make job offers subject to certain conditions, perhaps including receipt of satisfactory references, right to work clearance and medical reports? Furthermore, if there are significant upfront training costs, should employees enter into training fees agreements?
What are the “must have” clauses in the contract of employment and, by the same token, what is better left to form part of a company policy?
Are restrictive covenants relevant - if so, what company activities need to be protected and for how long? How does one draft a covenant that has a reasonable chance of being enforceable; can one ask an employee to enter into restrictive covenants at any time during his employment and what are the problems of doing so?
Once the employment relationship has 'bedded down', further problems await. How does one manage the employee who is persistently having bouts of short-term sick absence; the employee returning from a long-term illness and claiming they are disabled; or returning to work in circumstances whereby employers should be thinking about a potential disability anyway? How far does one have to go in order to satisfy the duty to make workplace adjustments?
Then there are more routine matters – understanding the rights and obligations of maternity, paternity and other types of statutory leave.
What happens when employers suspect misconduct by a member of staff? How should one investigate allegations properly, clearly defining any subsequent charges and thereafter conducting a fair disciplinary hearing? Are the disciplinary hearing findings well thought out and do they bear a close relationship to the original charge(s)? Finally, should any appeal hearing be a rehearing or a review and what are the implications of following either route?