Employment
Our team of employment law solicitors provide support to social enterprises to ensure their employment contracts and internal policies and procedures comply with legislation.
The most important pieces of legally binding documentation between an employer and an employee are employment contracts and internal policies and procedures. Not only do they help both parties understand their obligations, but they can also be effective at safeguarding your organisation from employees making a claim against you.
When drafting your employment contracts and internal policies and procedures, it is imperative that they are clear and easy to understand to minimise the risk of them being open to interpretation and potentially leaving your organisation open to claims.
Clear documentation ensures that both employers and employees know where they stand and the documents should be reviewed on a regular basis to make sure they are relevant and comply with changes to employment law, changes within the organisation and sector-specific regulations and requirements.
At Anthony Collins Solicitors, our experienced employment law team provides advice and support to all kinds of social enterprises to ensure that their employment contracts and internal policies and procedures support the smooth running of day-to-day operations.
Policies and procedures provide the framework for an organisation to make choices about how it operates. They can help the organisation with decision-making and provide a clear pathway of actions that should be taken in the event of a breach of contract or internal policy. Organisations may have policies on any number of topics, including:
- Employment
- Finance
- Premises
- Confidentiality
- Diversity
- Risk management
- Service delivery
- Training
- Volunteer involvement
Our employment contracts, and internal policies and procedures service
We work with many social enterprises to ensure that their employment contracts and internal policies and procedures are drafted in a clear and easy-to-understand manner, are tailored to the specific requirements of your organisation and take into consideration the sector-specific legislation and regulations.
Our experienced employment law solicitors can advise on all aspects of employment contracts and internal policies and procedures, including:
- Directors’ Service Agreements
- Consultancy Agreements
- Contracts of employment, including secondment and joint-employment contracts
- Discrimination, bullying and harassment policies
- Disciplinary and grievance procedures
- Data protection and confidentiality procedures
- Restrictive covenants
- Staff handbooks and rules for employees
- Joint contracts
- Zero hour contracts
- Sickness absence
- Maternity, paternity, shared-parental and adoption leave
- Equal opportunities
- Health and safety policy
“Holiday, celebrate”…but not if you employ term-time-only employees or use zero-hours contracts
The decision of the Court of Appeal in The Harpur Trust v Brazel & Unison has made clear that employers can no longer legally calculate part-time holiday based on 12.07% of hours worked over a year.
Modern slavery – looking out for shackles in the supply chain
The Government commissioned an independent review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in July 2018. The outcome was published in May 2019 which highlighted areas for improvement.
Mum’s the word and gets the enhanced maternity package…
A recent case in the Court of Appeal will no doubt bring a sigh of relief for employers, but a corresponding sigh of disappointment may be uttered for equality and gender balance in the workplace.
Employment status... where are we?
The gig economy, the tensions between it, and our more established ways of working are rarely far from the news these days.
Compensatory rest – equivalent not identical
The case of Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd v Crawford [2019] EWCA Civil 269 will not win awards for excitement but is useful guidance when dealing with workers’ rest periods under the WTR 1998.
Brexit...of course
Non-UK nationals will surely be worried about an uncertain future, with much still unclear. These feelings will inevitably accompany people to work, and so employers need to be prepared.
The show must go on…The Government responds to the "gig-economy" review
Just when we thought that all news is Brexit news, the Government publishes its proposals for the modern workplace, its ‘vision for the future of the UK labour market’.
Holidays – are they all wrapped up?
A recent ECJ case has concluded that statutory holiday entitlement will not automatically be lost at the end of a holiday year unless the employer has “diligently” bought it to the worker’s attention.
Budget 2018 increases National Living Wage
This year’s Budget contained the news that the National Living Wage (NLW) will increase from April 2019.
Employer is vicariously liable for injury caused by managing director during a fight at a work Christmas after-party
An employer may be held vicariously liable for acts committed by an employee in breach of that individual’s own tortious duties, which is a form of indirect liability.
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