Employment and Human Resources

Ashfords' Employment and Human Resources Team is known for its pragmatic, rigorous and commercial advice to employers, in both the private and public sectors, and to senior executives. Our solicitors have considerable experience of supporting clients and advising them on all issues that can arise from the beginning of the employment relationship through to the end, including HR advice, the preparation of employment contracts, service agreements and handbooks, restructures and redundancy, the TUPE implications on the sale or purchase of businesses and the successful management of all litigation matters in Courts and Employment Tribunals.

The size and resource of our team means that we can support clients' HR needs wherever and whenever assistance is needed. Clients tell us that they value our approachability and willingness, our ability to understand their businesses and objectives. We offer competitive rates, flexible arrangements and value-added extras.

Work handled includes:

Contracts and terms and conditions of employment;
Service Agreements;
Tax and employee incentives;
Handbooks, policies and procedures;
Maternity issues and "family friendly" policies;
Minimum wage;
Working time;
Restructures and redundancy;
Trade union recognition and industrial disputes;
Grievance, disciplinary, capability and dismissal procedures;
Termination packages;
Employment Covenants, post-termination restrictions and confidential information;
All employment aspects of business and company sales and purchases, and public sector outsourcing projects, including TUPE and the negations of warranties and indemnities;
Litigation and advocacy, including unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal and breach of contract, discrimination issues of all types, including harassment and bullying, equal pay, whistleblowing, and pursuing and defending injunctive proceedings;
Employing foreign workers and business immigration;
Intellectual property;
Data protection; and
Internal training.

The Employment Scheme

We have developed a fixed-fee solution for employment law and HR support.The Employment Scheme provides comprehensive support, offering members tailored employment documents, full telephone and email support (including the preparation of documents), access to employment stationery and the possibility of insuring against Tribunal claims. For further information about the scheme, please contact any of the Partners in the team.

Recent work undertaken includes:

Successful defence or settlement of several high-profile unfair dismissal and discrimination Tribunal claims brought against a significant public sector client;
Advising three local authorities (including a large unitary authority) on their obligations under "Single Status" to eliminate discrimination in pay. Our advice included assessments of the potential liability for Equal Pay claims, guidance on drafting and negotiating related collective agreements with Trade Unions, and strategic advice;
Successful defence of a significant Tribunal claim for unpaid holiday pay for a private sector employee;
Successful prosecution and defence of a large number of restrictive covenant disputes; and
Advice and guidance on all aspects of the TUPE regulations arising out of the outsourcing of various services by local authorities and the sale of various businesses.

Would you like to receive free legal updates by e-mail?

We provide regular emails on up-to-date summaries of case law and legislative developments. Employers tell us that they like the fact that each email is short, so can be read quickly, but contains links to more in-depth articles which they can access if a particular issue interests them.

If you would like to subscribe to our monthly employment update please click on this link and complete the form.

Join Ashfords' Employment Team at a monthly Networking Club, or visit our linked in pages to see the latest discussions.

HR Networking Club