Our friendly employment dispute solicitors in London are ready to assist your business when facing an employment dispute. We offer a no-charge initial consultation.
Expert help and guidance is on hand to take the stress out of an employment dispute. Let us guide you through the pitfalls of the employment dispute your business is facing.
We are experienced in acting for employers defending employment dispute claims. We also advise on compliance with employment rights and handling grievance claims. Our London Employment lawyer team can guide you on avoiding disputes before they arise. By supporting you across the decision-making process, we help to ensure that you make robust decisions. Decisions that then stack up if challenged, do not breach employment rights and are fair to the employee.
We can also act for senior employees and directors in disputes with the company. Not all disputes end up in the Employment Tribunal. In many cases you can negotiate a settlement. It is also sensible to do so to:
- avoid wasting management time and distracting them from the important business of running the company,
- limit incurring legal fees (even if you win in the Tribunal, you will not have your legal fees reimbursed by the employee)
- have certainty over the outcome.
Avoiding employment disputes and claims
While no-one can 100% avoid disputes arising, you can:
- make sure you are in a strong position to defend any claim; and
- by acting fairly, minimise the risk of a claim being brought in the first place.
This includes ensuring you:
- act consistently and fairly between different employees,
- act in compliance with the employment contract and your staff handbook (HR policies),
- handle grievance claims promptly and sensibly,
- address workplace bullying or discrimination,
- avoid causing unlawful discrimination, and
- keep up to date with employment laws and rights.
Handling dismissals fairly
As a key employment right is the right not to be unfairly dismissed, you need to understand the fair reasons for a dismissal and when this right arises. If there is no discrimination involved in the dismissal, the employee needs to have a qualifying period of employment of not less than 2 years. If there is unlawful discrimination, then there is no qualifying period required.
Fair reasons for making a dismissal are:
- conduct, e.g. the employee has done something clearly inappropriate or unacceptable
- capability, e.g. the employee is unable to do the job (sometimes because of long-term illness) or does not have the right experience or qualifications
- redundancy, e.g. the role is no longer needed by the business
- because of the law, e.g. if the employee cannot do their job legally, for example a driver who has lost their driving licence
- some other substantial reason – this is a term used for a wide variety of other situations, but generally case law must support the reason as being one the Tribunal will accept as genuine.
You must also follow a fair procedure. For example, you must hold a hearing before making a dismissal.
Employment Dispute Solicitors in London and Essex
Based out of Liverpool Street in London and Colchester in Essex. Our London startup lawyers and Colchester team can support your business through an employment dispute.
As employment dispute solicitors based in London, our team can support your business to avoid employee disputes. We follow solid HR processes to ensure that grievances don’t escalate to disputes.
In the rare instance that a dispute does arise, then trusted and pragmatic advice and representation in the Employment Tribunal is on hand.
If the employee in question has share options, our corporate law specialists can advise on how to deal with the share options too, in the dispute or as part of a negotiated settlement.
