Employment HR disputes

We can advise on the disciplinary process.

We can assist you by:

• Persuading your employer to conduct a fair and adequate investigation;
• Ensuring you have adequate time to prepare for any disciplinary hearing;
• Obtaining clarity on any disciplinary allegations;
• seeking advance sight of any evidence your employer might rely upon;
• identifying potential witnesses;
• accessing any evidence that may be relevant to your defence;
• setting out your grounds of defence in writing (considering any relevant company procedures, disciplinary rules or code of conduct);
• detailing any factors relevant to mitigation which might persuade the employer to consider lesser disciplinary sanctions;
• formulating your appeal;
• in appropriate cases, negotiating severance terms as an alternative to the disciplinary process continuing
• advising you on ACAS early conciliation and any on the merits and value of any Employment Tribunal claims you may have if conciliation does not achieve settlement

We will assist you in identifying whether you may have any disabilities contributing to your attendance and consider whether there are any reasonable adjustments your employer may make which may improve your attendance, or whether any adjustments should be made to the level of non-attendance which would normally trigger formal attendance management procedures.

We will also have regard to whether any non-attendances have been put down to sickness which may be pregnancy-related or were some other forms of absence e.g. dependent leave.

If we feel you have been subject to discrimination, we can assist you in raising a grievance or in seeking reasonable adjustments which may facilitate you remaining in employment or in trying to negotiate severance terms.

We can explore with you whether your employer has undertaken informal performance management before moving onto any formal performance improvement plan. We can make representations on your behalf if it does not appear that there are adequate grounds for formal performance management and if it does not appear that the performance management process is fair. This might include looking at whether the objectives for improvement are reasonably achievable within the review period set. This may also involve consideration of whether you have had sufficient training and support and notifying your employer of any issues that may be temporarily impacting your work performance.

As performance management can be stressful for the employee concerned, we will also explore whether in the alternative, you may wish to seek to negotiate severance terms, and if so, we can assist you with this.

Grievances are a formal process for raising any employment concerns including but not limited to discrimination, bullying and harassment.

Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination because of any protected characteristic.

We can help you decide whether to raise an informal concern, file a formal grievance, or resign and pursue a constructive dismissal or other tribunal claim. Whilst time is of the essence, we always advocate taking legal advice before resigning your employment, timing is often very significant with such claims, and you may not want to give up your salary if you are not confident of having a successful claim or without exploring internal grievance process first.

We can draft a grievance letter for you, advise on evidence gathering, witness statements and possible remedies and with negotiating settlement.

We can advise you on your rights to time off for family related reasons including maternity, paternity, shared parental leave, adoption leave, neo-natal leave, bereavement leave and dependent leave including your right not to be subject to detriment or dismissed for taking such leave and your rights upon returning to work. Where these rights have been infringed, we can help you raise a grievance, obtain your legal entitlements or negotiate severance terms.

Flexible working can involve requesting a change of working hours (including to part-time or compressed hours) or a change in your work location. The right to request flexible working is a day one right available to everyone not just those with caring responsibilities, although there are specific processes to follow. Employers can only refuse the request for specified reasons. There is a limit on the number of requests that can be made; therefore it is important to full consider your request before submitting it.

We can assist you by making suggestions that may make your request more workable from both parties’ perspectives. If you are returning from maternity leave, we would recommend making any flexible working request at least 4 months before you plan on returning to work due to the time frames involved and to allow time to make childcare provision thereafter. We can advise on the process involved, including advising on any appeal process.  If the request is refused, we can advise you on any claims you may have which may include a claim for indirect discrimination and constructive dismissal, on raising a grievance to try and persuade your employer to re-consider or offer severance terms or failing that pursuing tribunal proceedings.

Whistleblowing involves a complainant disclosing breaches of legal obligations in the public interest.

Whistleblowers have protections against suffering a detriment or dismissal because of the concerns they have raised.

We can assist you in raising a grievance about the way you have been treated, seeking to negotiate severance terms if appropriate, engaging in ACAS Early Conciliation and pursuing a claim in the Employment Tribunal.

If you are asked to enter into a new contract of employment, we can review this contract and explain the impact of that contract and what your employer might do if you refuse to sign it. We can also review any contract you are asked to sign before commencing employment and explain the implications of this. In both cases we can try to renegotiate any terms you are not happy with, e.g. post termination restrictive covenants which might make it difficult to get comparably paid employment when the employment under the contract ends.

If you believe that your employer is not acting in accordance with your contract or you have any dispute about pay, holiday pay or benefits, we can advise you and assist you in raising a grievance and pursuing the matter further if necessary.

We can also advise on consultancy contracts.

Post-termination restrictions must be no wider than is needed (in scope or duration) to protect a legitimate business. This is often dependent on the circumstances of the case.

We review non-compete and other pre and post termination restrictions and advise on enforceability, possible renegotiation, and the risks which can flow from breach. We can also advise you how you should reply if you receive a solicitor’s letter accusing you of breach and seeking information, warranties and undertakings and threatening a claim for injunctive relief or a claim for breach of contract or an account of profit.

If you were a company director, we can also advise you on any related breaches of fiduciary duties.

Some matters settle quickly.

Others, including employment tribunal claims, have tight deadlines (especially for issuing the claim and for some other procedural steps.

For most employment tribunal claims the time limit for filing a claim is three months less one day from the act complained of, although the time limit can be extended by ACAS early conciliation.

We will advise on likely timescales and on whether early conciliation with ACAS is required.

Once issued, typically employment tribunal claims, particularly those requiring multi day hearings can take up to 4 years to conclude. THIS is one reason why seeking an early negotiated settlement is often a better way forward – getting you some compensation when you need it, usually with less stress and expense. We have lots of experience of doing via early conciliation, direct negotiation, mediation and alternate dispute resolution.