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
When is “stand-by time”, working time?
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given a Judgement in Ville de Nivelles v Matzak on whether stand-by time constitutes working time under the Working Time Directives.
Surveillance Cameras and Privacy at Work
Employers are having to walk a fine line between protecting their interests whilst also ensuring that they are not breaching their employees’ rights.
Immigration rules and termination of employment contracts
The sanctions against employers who knowingly or unknowingly employ individuals who do not have the correct immigration status to work in the UK are stringent.
Working Time Regulations and ‘compensatory rest’
Under the Working Time Regulations (WTR) a worker is entitled to a 20 minute rest break away from their workstation if their daily working time exceeds six hours. However, there are limited circumstan
Bypassing Collectively Agreed Terms
What can an employer do when its negotiations with a recognised union break down and they cannot collectively agree changes to terms?
Employee concerns and whistleblowing
Can an employee’s concerns raised purely out of self-interest constitute a qualifying disclosure for whistleblowing purposes?
What’s on the horizon for HR and employment law in 2018?
What’s on the horizon for HR and employment law in 2018? Kate Watkins highlights key legislative changes and cases to keep an eye out for.
Mind the gap: TUPE and gaps between contracts
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) has confirmed that a 5 month gap in operations does not necessarily prevent TUPE applying.
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