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.