Ensuring that the correct processes are followed when disciplining employees and/or dismissing them is paramount to protecting your legal and financial position as an employer by remaining compliant with employment law obligations. At Clifton Ingram, our Employment Law department keeps up to date with changes in employment legislation, as well as decisions coming out of the Courts and Tribunals that might affect your position. For instance, with Tribunal fees having recently been overturned, access to the Courts for aggrieved employees is much easier.
Employment law is one of the fastest changing areas and simultaneously one of the most important. Failing to comply with employment law requirements can result in damage to your reputation, as well as having detrimental cost implications.
Employers often overlook the importance of the process to be followed when dismissing employees or taking other disciplinary action. A dismissal that might otherwise be fair may nevertheless be found to be unfair if a proper and fair process has not been followed. A common example of this includes the failure to carry out a proper investigation into all the facts. Obviously, this failure can result in the wrong factual conclusion being drawn, on which a disciplinary decision is then based, even though that conclusion might have seemed reasonable at the time. Another example is the failure to give the employee a fair hearing and either rushing the process or delaying it for too long.
Even if a fair process is followed, a dismissal might be unfair either by being too harsh or being inconsistent with the way others have been treated for the same offence.
If you are contemplating some measure other than dismissal, a fair process should still be followed in order to comply with the obligation of trust and confidence towards an employee, which is implied into their employment contract by law.
If you are an employer, we can help ensure that:
- Your disciplinary processes are compliant; and
- You follow the processes properly.
If you are an employee and you feel you have been disciplined or dismissed unfairly, then come to Clifton Ingram and we can help you:
- Determine whether you were wrongfully or unfairly dismissed;
- Work out whether you have been discriminated against;
- Pursue compensation for any action on the part of your employer that was not compliant with employment legislation.
The expert solicitors in Clifton Ingram’s employment department will guide you carefully through the whole process, if you are an employer, of ensuring that your procedures and systems are properly constituted; we will use our knowledge and experience to assist you with your decision-making in order to minimise your exposure to claims and compensation awards. If you are an employee, we will help you establish whether you have been the subject of non-compliant actions.
“The ‘always proactive’ Clifton Ingram LLP predominantly acts for employers, in both contentious and non-contentious matters and advises on discrimination claims, redundancy issues and TUPE regulations. Alison Gair ‘maintains superb subject knowledge ‘and ‘has a great ability to convey complex content into comprehensible information’. Robert Cherry advises on workplace policies, grievance procedures and redundancies.”
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Disciplinary & Dismissal Legal Advice in our Wokingham, Reading and Farnham, Thames Valley and M3 Corridor offices
Our solicitors at Clifton Ingram are a highly experienced, proactive and down-to-earth team, bringing a high-quality and professional service to your local area.
We regularly advise clients across the South East, including Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Wiltshire and London. Speak to one of our team today to see how we can help by calling 0118 978 0099. Our solicitors will move fast to find a solution personal to you.