Employment law support for employers falls into
several distinct categories. These form the basis of
services offered by most support providers :-
Tribunal Support
With more and more claims for unfair dismissal, discrimination, equal pay
and redundancy issues it is becoming essential for every business to
either employ employment law specialists or to outsource to specialist
companies when required. Employees will usually have expert advice and
representation from Citizens Advice centres or Trade Unions. Tribunals
can be very costly in terms of time, effort and money. Larger companies
tend to employ in-house employment lawyers and have a legal department
whereas smaller businesses will more likely outsource employment law
support services. It is always best to try to avoid tribunals and
settling with and employee is often the least expensive route.
Employment Law Advice
There is a massive raft of employment law legislation and every business
needs to consider actions against employees carefully before
implementing. Making the wrong move or even just saying the wrong thing
can have repercussions beyond what is expected. It is best to get
employment law advice before acting. When situations occur it is
important to do the right things as making a mistake at this stage can
make matters
worse. You may decide on a what you consider to be a fair course of
action only to find out that this has compounded the problem. Employment
law support advice is vital.
Employment Policies
Setting employment policies for your business is very sensible and in
some cases is required by law. Lawyers can draft a tailor-made handbook
for a business that reflects all the current legal and good practice
requirements. It will include such things as how the company should deal
with absence, what are it's disciplinary procedures, maternity rights
etc. A handbook will save time and make it clear to all parties what the
company policy is.
Health and Safety
Drafting policy and procedures for health and safety, carrying out risk
assessments, audits of your policies as well as acting on behalf of the
company in all legal matters.
Larger companies will employ employment lawyers directly but smaller
businesses will most likely outsource to experts commonly on a retainer
basis. This mean that a regular payment will be made to retain the
services of a lawyer and often this includes regular meetings to give
advice on current issues. More expensive legal work and attendance at
tribunals or courts can be covered by taking out special insurance.