Employment law covers many areas of legislation, so it’s important to get an in-depth understanding of your responsibilities towards employees from an expert.

Employment law covers things like employment contracts, working conditions, time off and working hours, health and safety at work, and protection of human rights in the workplace.  For guidance on which elements of employment law will affect your business, and how to meet your legal responsibilities, it’s best to talk with a solicitor who specialises in employment law.  They can give advice on subjects including:

• Pay.  You’ll need to make sure that your salary structure provides wages in excess of the National Minimum Wage, and that you have appropriate sick-pay and maternity / paternity policies in place.  If you would like to provide performance-related pay, then it’s vital to have clear guidelines in place to prevent misunderstandings between you and your employees.
• Working hours.  Your employees will need to understand how you would like to structure their working day, and how this relates to their rights – taking breaks, working outside those hours, and deciding whether or not to work more than 48 hours on average each week.
• Discrimination.  It is vital to treat your employees fairly.  A solicitor specialising in employment law can help you understand your obligations in terms of recruiting and managing staff without taking their age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, race or disability into consideration.  You are also not allowed to discriminate against people because they are pregnant or have children.  Understanding your rights as an employer is also important.
• Redundancy.  Hard as it may be, sometimes you will find that your business needs to make some employees redundant.  It is vital to make sure that you follow the correct processes in managing and communicating the redundancy process so that your employees do not have reason to take you to an employment tribunal

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when you take on staff for your business.  Employment law can change, too so if you’re busy running a business then you’ll need to have experts on hand with advice and support in making sure that your business complies with the latest legislation.  In the UK, employment law is designed to protect the employer’s rights as well as employee rights.  

Use our search tool to find a solicitor in your local area who specialises in employment law.  If you’re setting up a business for the first time, even as a Sole Trader, it’s a good idea to find out what your responsibilities will be.

Questions you might like to ask your solicitor…

What sort of contract do I need to have for my employees?

Which policies do I need to have in place, how do I tell my employees about them?

How can I find out about changes in legislation and stay up to date?