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Managing people (disciplinary, grievances & discrimination)
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.
Discrimination law
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. Currently it is unlawful to discriminate in the workplace on the grounds of:
- Sex
- Race
- Disability
- Age
- Sexual orientation
- Religion or belief
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage
- Civil partnership
- Pregnancy & maternity.
Whilst many forms of potential discrimination are easy to identify and avoid, the full effects of modern discrimination legislation are often unseen and misunderstood.
We work closely with Nick Hobden, the partner who heads the employment department, and Ben Stepney, an associate partner in the same department. Both are knowledgeable, responsive and pro-active in the service that they provide and over a number of years I feel that we have developed an excellent professional friendship and working relationship with them.
Disciplinary & grievances
We 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.
We can help you by:
- Reviewing your disciplinary and grievance procedures to ensure that they comply with current legislation and best practice
- Drafting new disciplinary and grievance procedures
- Guiding you through the process of handling a grievance
- Guiding you through the process of handling a disciplinary.
Our approach
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.
Accreditations & awards
As a successful SME, we were looking for a highly efficient and professional service when dealing with all HR and legal matters. We have been very impressed with Thomson Snell & Passmore's employment advice service. They have provided excellent, comprehensive compliance advice which has fitted well with our requirements. It has given us confidence and comfort. We highly recommend them and their employment advice service to any SME company.