Employment
We provide solutions driven advice on HR and employment law issues within the UK and internationally. We differentiate ourselves by offering clients an integrated service working in collaboration with our immigration, pensions, employee benefits, data protection and tax specialists to handle all of your people related legal needs.
Our primary focus is achieving your commercial objective in the most efficient manner possible. We work closely with you to understand your business and to use our experience to recommend clear solutions to complex and/or sensitive problems.
Our clients include industry leaders, stock market listed companies, global brands and owner managed businesses. We have specialisms in the technology, real estate, recruitment, hospitality, financial services and commercial outsourcing sectors.
We advise on all aspects of the employment relationship cycle starting with recruitment and on boarding (drafting contractual documentation, establishing competitive remuneration and benefit structures and securing rights to work in the UK); covering all issues during the relationship (managing conduct and capability issues, resolving disputes, talent management and assisting with changes to employment terms and workforce restructures); and all aspects of ending the relationship (devising exit strategies to minimise the risk of legal claims, ensuring the effective protection of business interests including from the loss of clients and staff and acting in litigation disputes in the Employment Tribunal and higher Courts). We also advise on the employment aspects of commercial transactions and outsourcing projects.
We also differentiate ourselves from our competitors through our international reach via our team’s specialised iGlobal Law business which enables us to provide advice within the UK and to manage on our clients’ behalf cross-border and country-specific employment law, data and privacy, whistleblowing, UK Bribery Act, FCPA and compliance advice in over 60 jurisdictions.
Key Knowledge Guide – Employment Law for New Businesses
Click here to read our Key Knowledge Guide to Employment Law for new businesses.
Experience
- Acting for a medical research and development company, the team has advised on a range of matters, including (i) harmonisation of employment terms and TUPE issues arising from company acquisitions; (ii) a complete revision of the employment contract and company handbook; (iii) assisting with exit management strategies for senior employees; and (vi) tax issues arising from employee benefits.
- Advising several global hospitality businesses on (i) restructuring of the workforce including changes to shift patterns; (ii) drafting and implementing new restrictive covenants; (iii) a large-scale redundancy/office closure exercise, including collective and individual consultation and guidance upon the strategic approach to be undertaken and a large number of issues arising from the exercise, including dealing with press enquiries; and (iv) defending a number of Tribunal claims concerning various allegations, including unfair dismissal and discrimination.
- Acting for a national care provider advising on the employment aspects of multiple business and site acquisitions and negotiating the outsourcing of key back office functions.
- Acting for a national facilities management business including (i) the departure of several board level employees; (ii) managing formal requests for Trade Union recognition; (iii) complex TUPE issues on the entry into and exit from public sector contracts; and (iv) several multi-party litigation disputes involving discrimination, whistleblowing and trade union issues.
- Advising a national resource management business on (i) the retendering for a large government contract. This included both the contractual documentation and then the consequential reorganisation of the business, including a large-scale restructure/redundancy exercise which was completed without any claims; (ii) a substantial change in the location of offices, leading again to a restructuring exercise, which the team assisted upon at all stages including, unfortunately, consequential redundancies; and (iii) the sale of one of its subsidiaries and the transfer of employees.
News
Restrictive covenants: why it is important to get employment contracts signed (and other vital lessons)
Tenon FM Limited v Susanne Cawley (and others) Tenon applied for an interlocutory injunction against Ms Cawley, seeking to enforce restrictive covenants in her contract of employment in order to… Read more →
Bulletins
Harassment claims – protecting your business
What is harassment? The legal definition of harassment is very wide. Harassment can be on grounds of sex, race or a number of other protected characteristics. The law also specifically… Read more →
Bulletins
References – the new and the old
ACAS published new guidance on employment references last week – essentially it is a consolidation of common questions that ACAS receives about references (see here). It is a useful reminder… Read more →
Bulletins
Pimlico Plumbers – Supreme Court stands firm on giving worker status to so-called “self-employed contractor”
The Supreme Court has refused to allow Pimlico Plumbers’ appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision that plumber and heating engineer Mr Smith was a “worker” with the associated rights.… Read more →
Bulletins
Gross misconduct dismissals – the range of reasonableness
This week’s bulletin looks at two interesting decisions from the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in relation to misconduct dismissals where the employee has a clean disciplinary record. Quintiles Commercial UK… Read more →
News
Could a long hours culture lead to a discrimination claim?
In Carreras v United First Partners Research, the Court of Appeal has upheld a decision by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that an expectation that a disabled employee would regularly… Read more →
News
Immigration Fees Hit Record Levels
The annual round of changes to immigration fees today (6th April) has resulted in above inflation increases of around 4 per cent on average, increasing yet again the cost to… Read more →
Bulletins
TERMINATION PAYMENTS – THE NEW TAX RULES
New rules come into force on 6 April 2018 that will affect how termination payments are taxed and whether an employee can benefit from the £30,000 tax exemption. The overall… Read more →
Bulletins
Update: National Living Wage, National Minimum Wage and Compensation Limits
The government has announced the new rates and limits which will be introduced from April 2018 in relation to the National Living Wage, National Minimum Wage and employment compensation limits.… Read more →
Bulletins
Constructive knowledge: Constructive guidance from the Court of Appeal in a disability case
Constructive guidance from the Court of Appeal in a disability case Employers are often faced with the difficulty of trying to understand what can be very mixed messages given by… Read more →
Mental Health
Mental Health – what businesses really need to be doing (and it won’t be easy)
The statistics are everywhere and it seems everyone is talking about mental health, which is great news. However, it will not be easy for employers to tackle the challenges –… Read more →
Mental Health
Mental health – how do you encourage employees to talk?
The new ACAS guidance on mental health has placed a raft of new training, awareness and documentation responsibilities on employers, including responsibility for creating a workplace culture where staff feel… Read more →
Bulletins
Employment law – hot topics for 2018
2017 saw a number of major themes in employment law: the cancellation of Tribunal fees; the push back against the treatment of individuals engaged in the gig economy; and the… Read more →
Bulletins
Employment status update
2017 has seen a surge in cases being brought by individuals working in the “gig economy” claiming that they are workers and not self-employed. In March, we reported on the… Read more →
"Wedlake Bell LLP’s ‘extremely knowledgeable’ and ‘commercially savvy’ department excels in handling employment documentation, disciplinary matters and remuneration issues."
— Legal 500, 2017
"Ravinder Mahal and Richard Isham led advice to CDK Global on a wage deduction issue regarding unauthorised expenses incurred by employees across a number of jurisdictions."
— Legal 500, 2017
"The department is led by Adam Grant, who advises on business reorganisations, outsourcing and transactional issues, as well as litigation before the Employment Tribunal and the High Court. Other clients include West Corporation, Brocade Communications Systems and the London School of Economics."
— Legal 500, 2017