Services to Employers

With legislation becoming increasingly complex, Employment Tribunals able to award compensation exceeding £65,000.00 for employees found to have been unfairly dismissed and unlimited compensation possible for those employees found to have been discriminated against, professional advice on employment related issues is an important consideration for all businesses whatever their size.      

Hodge Halsall has a specialist employment department providing a comprehensive range of services including :- 

• Drafting and reviewing terms and conditions, contracts of employment and service agreements.
• Advising on disciplinary procedures and dismissals.
• Making employees redundant.
• Drafting of formal employment letters.
• Drafting of company handbooks, equal opportunity and other policies.
• Compromise/Severance Agreements
• Defending claims in the Employment Tribunals or Courts.
• Interpretation of relevant employment legislation.  
• Restrictive covenants.
• Discrimination issues.
• Absence issues.
• Whistle blowing.

Drafting and reviewing terms and conditions, contracts of employment and service agreements

Section One of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires employers to provide employees with a written statement covering their main terms and conditions of employment.    A "contract of employment" is a more comprehensive document usually containing substantially more detail than the basic terms and conditions enabling more specific employment issues to be clarified and ambiguity avoided.  Service Agreements tend to be offered to more senior and well remunerated employees and careful thought needs to be given to their drafting.    

Providing the statutory statement of terms and conditions or a more formal contract of employment will assist in :- 

• Enabling both employer and employee to know exactly what the agreed terms of employment are.
• Managing staff relations.   
• Reducing the risk of claims to the Employment Tribunals.
• Complying with relevant employment legislation.

We are able to assist in the drafting of both basic terms and conditions of employment, contracts of employment and service agreements.      We can also assist in the review of existing documentation to ensure compliance with changes in employment legislation.   

Advising on disciplinary procedures and dismissals

Disciplinary rules and procedures set standards of conduct at work and make clear to employees what is expected of them.   The ACAS handbook discipline at work observes that "proper procedures are an aid to good management and should not be viewed primarily as a means of imposing sanctions or as necessarily leading to dismissal".     With the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal now £56,800.00 it is imperative that employers follow a fair procedure if expensive and time consuming claims to the Employment Tribunals are to be restricted.   

The Employment Act 2002 introduced statutory minimum procedures in relation to disciplinary and grievance issues providing a requirement for employers to go through certain defined stages whenever disciplinary action or dismissal is contemplated.   A failure to follow these procedures when a dismissal occurs will render that dismissal automatically unfair.     Similar procedures operate in respect of grievances pursued by employees where specified steps must be followed.     A failure by an employer or employee to use the procedures can result in an increase (or reduction) of between 10 and 50% of any later award by a Tribunal following a successful claim.  

We can assist with the drafting of disciplinary and grievance procedures to ensure they are compliant with the Act and are able to provide advice at all stages of a disciplinary process including :- 

• Advising as to whether disciplinary action is appropriate in the circumstances.
• Ensuring compliance with a fair procedure.
• Advising as to the potential risks of a dismissal.
• Advising with regard to the possibility of settling any claim through a Compromise Agreement.
• Assisting with the defence of a claim if one is pursued.

Making employees redundant

When considering redundancies a reasonable employer would be expected to do the following :- 

• Utilise the statutory dismissal procedures (see above).
• Give as much warning as possible of the impending redundancies.
• Consult the employees/representatives/trade union as to selection criteria.
• Establish selection criteria.
• Ensure that selection is made fairly in accordance with those criteria.
• Consider the availability of suitable alternative employment.

We will advise as to the stages to be followed if redundancies are being considered.      

Drafting of formal employment letters

With effect from 24th October 2001 almost all provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 became effective requiring processing of automated or manual data to be fully compliant with the provisions of the 1998 Act.     All manually written, and  computerized  records, will now be caught by the provisions of the Act.     Employees may have the right to access most personal data held about them making it increasingly important that all data on an individual employee's file is in a form that will not present problems for the employer if disclosed to the employee.      

We will advise on the preparation of formal employment letters and upon the interpretation of the Data Protection Act.     

Drafting of company handbooks, equal opportunity and other policies

With compensation awards for sex, race, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation discrimination uncapped it is important for employers to have in place policies to identify and eradicate behaviour that may result in claims being pursued by affected employees.     An employer is liable for any act done by an employee in the course of employment with or without the employer's knowledge or approval unless the employer can show that reasonably practicable steps were taken to prevent the employee from doing the act or from doing in the course of his/her employment acts of that description.      It is unlikely that employers will be able to discharge their responsibility unless they have in place a well publicized and updated policy, appropriate training, an effective monitoring system and have reacted to situations which have previously been recognized as problematic. 

We can assist in the drafting of policies for :- 

• Equal opportunities including bullying and harassment.
• Maternity leave
• Email and internet use
• Whistle blowing
• Health and safety
• Sick leave
• Working time
• Smoking

Severance Agreements

We are able to assist in advising upon terms of settlement where a mutually agreed termination of employment is possible.     A "Compromise/Severance Agreement" in an appropriate written form can record the terms of severance which, once signed, will be binding on the employer and the employee.   Compromise Agreements can be used to settle potential claims for :- 

• Unfair dismissal
• Redundancy
• Discrimination
• Unlawful deductions from wages
• Working time
• National minimum wage

We will assist with the drafting of Compromise Agreements and ensure compliance with the relevant statutory requirements.

Defending claims in Employment Tribunals and other Courts

We consider professional representation in the defence of employment claims in the Tribunals and other Courts particularly important.      We regularly appear in the Employment Tribunals and Courts and, in addition to our previously mentioned services designed to prevent such claims, will provide assistance and representation when things go wrong including :-

• Advising on the merits of the claim against you - we will inform you if defending the claim successfully will be difficult in an effort to save you money in the long run.
• Drafting the Response that you must file with the Tribunal within twenty eight days by way of defence to the claim against you.   
• Negotiating a settlement before the hearing if your instructions are to that effect.
• Preparing the defence of the claim generally in order to present the evidence in the most effective manner.   
• Interviewing your witnesses and preparing statements.
• Representing you at any Tribunal hearing.  

We will provide an estimate of our fees in defending the claim on your behalf at any stage.      

Interpretation of relevant employment legislation

The extent of employment legislation places increasing demands on a business.   Non- compliance, however, can result in significant expense by way of Tribunal compensation, legal costs, management and staff time and poor employment relations with staff.     We will assist with interpretation of rules and regulations and assist with their implementation in your business. 

Restrictive covenants

An employer cannot simply impose restraints on an employee in order to stop him or her competing.      An employer can protect what belongs to the employer and is able to seek to prevent an ex-employee making use of what may be regarded as belonging to the employer.    An employer may therefore legitimately seek to protect :- 

• its trade connections, suppliers and customers, and
• its workforce, and
• its trade secrets and other confidential information

Restrictive covenants are therefore valid if confined within reasonable limits.     A covenant which is too wide will be void and unenforceable as being an unreasonable restraint of trade.   

We will consider with you what rights exist in your business which need protection and which will require consideration of the nature of your business and the position of the individual employee within your business whom you seek to restrain. 

We will also assist if it becomes necessary to enforce covenants against a former employee considered to be acting in breach of those covenants.   

Discrimination issues

Research commissioned by Equal Opportunities Review published in September 2004 showed that employers paid almost 4.2 million pounds compensation for unlawful discrimination at work in the previous year.      Awards for discrimination are uncapped and many more pay outs are made in settlements before claims actually reach Tribunal.      Such claims are avoidable and employers should adopt clear and consistent policies on discrimination making it clear what amounts to unacceptable conduct, provide aggrieved employees with a route for making complaints and deal with any transgressions as a disciplinary matter. 

We will assist with the drafting of suitable policies and provide training for your staff if required.

Absence issues

Staff absence is a problem for any business and recent figures produced by the CBI estimate annual costs to business to be £12.2bn.   Dismissing employees for either persistent short-term absence or long-term sickness absence is always  problematical.  

The introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 1998 makes dealing with ill health absenteeism an even more difficult problem and may make it inappropriate to use a disciplinary process as a means of solving such absences.    It is important, therefore, for employers to introduce a specific and carefully worded attendance and absence procedure ensuring consistency of treatment across the workforce and which when breached provides potentially a fair reason for dismissal in the event of any subsequent tribunal proceedings.    

We can draft an attendance and absence policy for your business in an endeavour not merely to enable absences to be dealt with in a structured and consistent way but also in an effort to provide a more positive working environment enabling you to retain valued staff and avoid unnecessary recruitment and training costs.     

Whistleblowing

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 came into force on 2nd July 1999 providing a framework of protection against victimization or dismissal for workers who "blow the whistle" on criminal behaviour or other wrong doing at work.  The Act protects not only employees but also contractors providing services, most agency workers, home workers and trainees on vocational and work experience schemes.   Protection is provided only if workers follow the procedures laid down in the Act and covers only specific categories of wrong doing.    These are :-

• a criminal offence
• a failure to comply with a legal obligation
• a miscarriage of justice
• the endangering of an individual's health and safety
• damage to the environment
• deliberate concealment of information relating to any of the foregoing.

A whistle blowing policy is essential to enable workers to raise issues internally thereby reducing the risk that serious concerns are mishandled and providing evidence that an employer is concerned that wrong doing is dealt with effectively.  We can assist with the drafting of a suitable policy providing guidance for workers as to steps to be taken if malpractice in the work place arises. 

Please contact us for further information.