Employment Law
We advise both employers and employees on employment law matters, including settlement agreements.
We have considerable experience on briefing employers on employment law changes and obligations.
This firm will give you sensible, pragmatic advice on the legal merits of your position and, equally importantly, on the practical situation and your available options.
The main services we offer are
- Drafting Contracts of employment, directors’ service agreements and consultancy contracts
- Advising on the difference between contracts of service and contracts for service
- Drafting and advising on HR Handbooks, policies and procedures
- Advising on existing contract terms, including restraints of trade
- Advising employers on Redundancy processes
- Drafting and advising on Settlement agreements
- Advising in situations where TUPE may apply
HR policies
All employers need to carry out effective planning and training to avoid costly disputes with their employees. The best approach to govern the relationship between employee and employer is to ensure that all your employment policies, processes, documentation and training are up to date and effective. As a basic requirement, all employees receive certain written terms of their employment.
We can perform a business legal health check to review your policies, documents and procedures and to make sure they are all legally compliant under current legislation.
Good legal planning will save your business time and cost, loss of reputation, morale and productivity.
Settlement agreements
Settlement Agreements are documents issued by employers to employees when offering them an ex gratia payment or settlement on leaving their employment. It is a document recording the terms of settlement between the employer and employee of all of the legal issues that could potentially be in dispute between them.
It is most common with redundancies and dismissals. Nearly always, it involves a payment being made by the employer to the employee. In return, the employee agrees not to issue any claims against the employer.
It is therefore a final settlement document between them. Solicitors’ advice on the terms is a requirement by law (in order to make the Agreement legally binding), and the cost for this advice is, in most cases, paid for by the employer.
We specialise in helping employers and employees understand the purpose and content of settlement agreements and secure an amicable outcome.
Key tools
Calculate your statutory redundancy entitlement – https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-redundancy-pay
Calculate your holiday entitlement – https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement
