December 2011

A legal guide from Clarkson Wright & Jakes
'50 ways to keep your business out of an Employment Tribunal'

Employment law is a constantly changing landscape. Whether you have one employee or several hundred, as an employer you have numerous procedures to follow and legislation to adhere to. If you fail to do so, you could find yourself facing an Employment Tribunal, a financially and reputation damaging situation to be in.

From the moment you start advertising for a new recruit, through to selection,training and promotion, you have rules to follow concerning fair treatment. Anti-discrimination laws dictate that everything from your recruitment advertisement onwards must not disadvatage any candidate or employee on the grounds of ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, sex, disability or sexual orientation. Do you know the law on this subject well enough to avoid a claim?

Policies, procedures and a written statement of employment terms and conditions must be provided to every staff member and kept up to date as your business and employment legislation changes. Written particulars allow you to lawfully terminate an employment contract should the terms be breached. Do you know what constitutes a legal set of written particulars?

Thanks to the abundance of information readily available online, employees are rarely in much doubt as to their employment law rights. If you are unlawful in any of your actions, it is likely employees will take action against you.

Could you afford to defend your business at an Employment Tribunal? If you were ordered to pay compensation, how would your business fair financially? Would your reputation stand up if you were accused of unfair treatment or discrimination?

If you are keen to keep your business out of an Employment Tribunal, these 50 tips will help you understand your responsibilities, reduce risk and avoid costly action.

Click here to download a pdf version of the booklet alternatively if you require a printed copy, please contact Yasmin Awan at Clarkson Wright & Jakes on 01689 887805 or email yasmin.awan@cwj.co.uk