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.
Bulletins
Discrimination Update: Vegetarianism is not a protected characteristic
In Conisbee v Crossley Farms Ltd, the Employment Tribunal held that vegetarianism does not amount to a philosophical belief and therefore does not qualify for protection under the Equality Act… Read more →
Bulletins
Covert recording: is it gross misconduct?
Would you consider an employee making a covert recording of an internal meeting to be an act of gross misconduct? The recent case Phoenix House v Stockman has raised this… Read more →
Bulletins
The Good Work Plan
It has been trailed by the Government as the most important package of employment rights for a generation. Whilst it does contain a number of actual and potential new measures,… Read more →
Bulletins
New obligations to report on employee engagement and other matters
Regulations which came into force on 1 January 2019 create new reporting obligations on UK companies in relation to employee engagement and certain pay matters. Which regulations? The Companies (Miscellaneous… Read more →
Bulletins
Employment News – Key cases and hot topics from 2018
KEY CASES Worker status: Uber B.V. v Aslam (December) The Court of Appeal upheld the decision that Uber drivers are workers – at least for the time when they are… Read more →
Bulletins
Navigating the demands of a mixed status workforce
Outside the relatively small world of the “gig” economy (i.e. companies who have built their businesses entirely around a particular staffing model), we have seen a growing trend of mainstream… Read more →
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 →
Adam Grant is particularly strong in the hospitality and outsourcing sectors.
— Legal 500, 2020
"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