Employment

Handling employment law issues can be a big distraction when you are trying to run a business. Get it wrong and it can tie up lots of management time as well as being very costly. But, when you get it right, it complements the business and keeps you running smoothly.

So that’s our job as employment lawyers – to keep your business running smoothly and if an occasional hiccup occurs – because life is like that – we’ll help you get through it with minimal disruption.

Our team of specialist employment lawyers, based in Kent, cover London and the South East and act for businesses of all shapes and sizes and in many different sectors. Our advice for businesses covers all aspects of the employment relationship, helping to settle disputes, defending employment tribunal claims and providing employment contracts and handbooks.

The fact is that employment law has become much more complicated in recent years. So you can rest assured that we have a team with terrific expertise and experience across the full spectrum of work. What makes us stand out is the depth of the relationship which we will forge with you based on our unwavering commitment to understand the way you and your business operates. That way we design and tailor our service around your needs – not an off-the-shelf formula. You will experience our unrivalled speed of response, which is consistently praised by those we work with.

So whether it’s dealing with employment tribunal claims or providing a telephone helpline service we’ve got all angles covered to provide commercially driven, strategic and practical advice, given with the energy and proactivity you expect from a trusted professional adviser.

To give a flavour of our work here are some recent examples:

• Advising a multi-academy trust on a claim from a former headteacher concerning whistleblowing, unfair dismissal, breach of contract and unpaid wages
• Advising a multi-national food distribution company in respect of a group of current and former employees who tried to move over £20 million worth of our client’s business to a competitor, we successfully took proceedings against them
• Advising a national insurance broker that had to close one of its sites, we took them through the process of consulting with its workforce
• Advising a care home sector charity on strategies for cost reduction which involved imposing changes to terms and pay, the legality of which was subsequently upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

We provide commercial advice and assistance to clients to protect confidential information and prevent poaching of customers and employees by former employees.

We advise employers on restrictive covenants (post termination restrictions) both at the point of negotiating restrictions and when an employee is leaving his or her employment.

Our experience means that we provide strategic advice, geared towards achieving a commercial solution for our client.

visit our restrictive covenants, confidentiality & competition page for more information.

Our specialist employment dispute lawyers, based in Kent, provide business clients with strategic, commercial and practical advice throughout the dispute, ensuring the best possible outcome. We have experience in fighting claims in the Employment Tribunal and the High Court and resolving claims through mediation and negotiating commercial settlements. Our employment dispute lawyers have significant experience and an excellent success rate in dealing with employment tribunal claims. We provide commercially driven, strategic and practical advice.

At Thomson Snell & Passmore, our highly experienced lawyers support clients across a wide range of employment claims. These include matters involving discrimination, breach of employment contract, unfair and constructive dismissal, redundancy, unlawful deduction of wages, equal pay, whistleblowing, TUPE, and issues relating to worker status and IR35.

For more information, please visit our employment disputes & tribunals page.

Formerly known as compromise agreements, employee settlement agreements are confidential agreements between employer and employee that record the terms of an agreed exit.

Since an employment settlement agreement is legally binding, it is important that the agreement is drafted by employment law experts. This will prevent the employee from bringing any claims against the employer once the agreement is signed.

Advantages of using an employment settlement agreement include that it can provide a quick and efficient way of ending employment and resolving any potential dispute. If properly drafted, the agreement will prevent the employee from bringing any further claims against their former employer, offering certainty and finality for both parties. It can also tie up all loose ends relating to the employee’s exit, such as formal resignation from the board, withdrawal of any complaints, and the inclusion of restrictions on competing with the employer after termination.

To learn more, please click here.

The best way to minimise the risk of problems arising in the workplace is to make sure that you have well drafted employment contracts, policies and procedures in place, ensuring both you and your employees know where you stand.

Our specialist team can advise on drafting and reviewing employment contracts, ensuring they are clear, compliant, and tailored to your business needs, as well as the drafting and reviewing of policies and staff handbooks. We also assist with bonus, commission, and other employee incentive arrangements, helping to ensure they are effectively structured and aligned with your business objectives. In addition, we support businesses in developing working practices that advance their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

For further information, please click here.

The TUPE regulations can apply to outsourcing, re-contracting, insourcing arrangements. If proper due diligence is not done this can lead to unexpected liabilities emerging after completion.

We advise private and public sector businesses on such matters, as well as on asset transfers. We assist clients to understand their obligations, manage risk and negotiate protections from employment and pension liabilities.

We also provide support to our Corporate & Commercial teams on the employment aspects of mergers and acquisition (M&A) transactions.

For more information, please visit our TUPE, outsourcing and M&A page.

We know that any redundancy process is difficult for employers and employees alike. Employers are required by law to consult extensively with trade unions, other employee representatives and employees. Consultation must cover the need to reduce workforce roles or create new ones to better align with the business feature needs, pools for selection, selection criteria and application of that criteria and suitable alternative employment. Our experienced team are experts at planning and carrying out collective and individual redundancy processes in a way that is efficient and effective for all involved.

We regularly help clients navigate the complexities of employment law, offering practical advice to ensure that the correct redundancy procedure is followed. Getting the process wrong can be expensive, very time consuming and harm the reputation of any employer. We help make sure employers do not ignore their collective information and consultation obligations and minimise the risk of any claims down the line.

To find out how we can help, please click here. 

As one of the leading firms in the Southeast, Thomson Snell & Passmore’s team of employment lawyers possess a wealth of experience in handling matters of disciplinary, grievances and discrimination and equality issues within the workplace.

Our lawyers act in discrimination claims across a broad range of areas, and we also work to achieve improvements in the way organisations work, by ensuring they implement the Equality Act into their practices. The law relating to discrimination has expanded rapidly in recent years, creating a complex web of legislation that can easily take the unwary by surprise.

We also have considerable experience of producing carefully drafted disciplinary and grievance policies, putting in place a clear process for dealing with issues. When problems arise, we frequently provide our clients with support throughout the disciplinary and grievance process, in order to ensure that their interests are protected.

Contact one of our experts or visit our dedicated managing people page to find out more.

Our employment lawyers are experienced in supporting businesses in relation to employment status issues and implementation of the off-payroll working rules (IR35).

If you use ‘non-employees’ then it is essential that your business is compliant. Following the well-publicised gig economy cases brought by workers of the likes of Uber and Pimlico Plumbers, potential claimants are very aware of the arguments they can make to challenge their contractor status and seek compensation.

The risks of getting their status wrong includes employment tribunal compensation and HMRC imposed penalties, as well as damage to reputation.

To find out how we can help, visit our dedicated employment status and IR35 page.

Our employment lawyers advise clients on a range of workplace data protection matters, including responding to subject access requests, which can be time-consuming and often arise during disputes. We also advise on data breach notification, employee monitoring, workplace technology, background and DBS checks, and ICO complaints.

Where a complaint or investigation arises, the ICO will usually request relevant policies, so we help organisations put in place appropriate policies covering employee and contractor data use, monitoring, and IT system use.

We also advise on employee use of social media, helping businesses manage both the opportunities it presents and the risks around confidentiality and potential liability, through clear policies and procedures.

Contact us to learn more about how we can help or visit our employee data protection page.

If your business provides good or services to members of the public, you must not treat someone unfairly due to a protected characteristic, such as their age, disability or gender. To do so could amount to unlawful discrimination. And you are liable for any such discriminatory acts of your employees.

A breach of this duty could lead to a court claim for damages and one which could have a lasting impact on your reputation.

We provide advice to businesses concerned about discrimination claims from members of the public. We can help you with defending any claims and to identify what can be done to avoid such any future claims.

Visit our discrimination in goods & services page to see how we can help.

We understand that Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR) from employees, customers, students, parents of a pupil or any other data subject whose personal data you hold and process as a data controller or processor can cause considerable stress.

Not only is there the request itself to consider, including every piece of data you hold about the individual, but you must also think about the data relating to other data subjects, which is mixed up with the individual in question’s data! This all needs to be completed within the one month deadline. And of course failure to comply with DSARs can result in serious consequences, so it is vital to carry them out in a timely and efficient way.

As a team that specialises in helping our clients with DSARs, we know how to help you, from establishing whether a request is manifestly unfounded and excessive, to advising on information that can be withheld because an exemption applies such as legal privilege, or because it simply does not relate to the data subject making the DSAR or identifies other data subjects (identifiers).

Contact us to learn more or click here to visit our dedicated data subject access requests page.

Handling employment law issues can be a time consuming distraction when you are trying to run a business. Get it wrong and it can tie up lots of management time as well as being very costly. Employment tribunal claims are on the rise as individuals are more willing to litigate. Getting expert advice on a course of action you wish to take could prevent a claim from ever arising.

One of the ways that we can give you peace of mind when dealing with HR issues is via our annual fixed price employment advice service, which can cover everything from routine telephone queries to advice on redundancy projects.

How does the advice service work?

• The advice service runs for 12 months
• The cost of the advice service is a fixed price for the 12 months
• You choose which package you would like; silver, gold or platinum. What is covered by each package is set out on below.

What types of advice will the employment advice service cover?

• Routine employment law and HR advice and the provision of template letters/email from our know-how bank, are included in all our packages
• Reviewing and amending documentation prepared by you such as letters inviting an employee to a disciplinary hearing and outcome letters – gold and platinum packages only
• Commenting on and advising on employment projects that you wish to conduct, e.g. redundancy process – platinum package only.

Examples:

• A client calls seeking advice in respect of a disciplinary meeting they will be conducting with an employee. The client and our lawyer spend 15 minutes discussing the matter on the phone – this will be covered with all packages.
• A client emails their letter inviting the employee to the disciplinary meeting and also scans the evidence in support of the allegation to us. Our lawyer reviews the evidence and amends the letter – this is covered by the gold and platinum packages.

Excluded from all:

• Data protection advice
• Court and tribunal claims
• TUPE and M&A work.

The cost of the advice service varies from one client to another depending on the number of employees you have and the extent of the anticipated use.

We will send you a quote for the cost of the advice service following a detailed discussion with you about your business, the employment issues you have dealt with over the past 12 months and what you believe your anticipated needs over the next 12 months are likely to be. There is no cost for this consultation

There is a minimum fixed price of £2,000 plus VAT at 20% for a silver package for a 12 month period.

Watch a short video outlining the employment advice line service.

How often can I get in contact?

You can contact us as much as you want, and if the issue you wish to discuss falls outside the scope of your package we will tell you.

What if I use the advice line less than anticipated?

If you have the platinum package you will accrue a credit for any under-use, which we will rollover at the end of the 12 month term. You can choose to spend this towards any optional extras (see below) or on advice falling outside of your package. Credit must be spent within six months of the end of the term in which it was accrued.

The optional extras:

• In house legal skills and best practice training for management (preferential prices available)
• Briefing and brainstorming session on employment law developments relevant to your organisation (free)
• Review meetings of your strategy and our service delivery (free)
• Employment practices liability insurance, to manage risks of claims, provided you take our advice (insurance premium quotes available)
• Fixed fee early conciliation services with a view to reaching a settlement to avoid employment tribunal claims
• Collaborative mediation of work place disputes to avoid employment tribunal or court claims.

Will I have a dedicated legal adviser or will I end up having to deal with a different person every time I call?

You will have a dedicated legal adviser and an employment relationship partner or senior associate assigned to you. We do this for several reasons:

• To ensure continuity for you
• So you always have two points of contact
• So that we have a relationship with you and we build up our knowledge and understanding of your business.