Employment

 

Employer client needed to undertake a restructure to reduce overheads and protect the future viability of the business. 

 

This involved taking the client through an analysis of the roles in their business that were business critical and those that were not - or else identifying areas of duplication or overlap of responsibilities. 

 

We then helped the client assess whether there was a "pool" of employees from whom the potentially redundant staff should be selected; then taking the client through the process from start to finish, providing draft letters, scripts for meetings and generally ensuring they didn't expose themselves to the risk of any tribunal litigation - which they could ill afford in terms of time or money.

 

We successfully concluded the process in a matter of a couple of months, with no claims being brought against the employer.  The client was left feeling they had been supported and looked after from start to finish, through what was a difficult time for them. 

 

One of our senior executive clients felt as though his employer was trying to edge him out of the business without having a good reason for doing so.

 

We advised him throughout and the end result was him retaining his role, having a new service agreement on terms that were satisfactory to him and which protected his position. We helped stop him from doing or saying anything that might prejudice his position by the provision of not only technical legal advice, but also strategic and tactical advice on how best to assert himself - but without irretrievably damaging the employer-employee relationship.

 

One of our employee clients had worked for many years with his employer, who was also a close personal friend. He didn't know what to do when his employer unilaterally varied his working hours (he had been full-time) and hence reduced his pay, ostensibly to save money.

 

We helped distance our client from the situation. We could play the "bad guy" but did so effectively - within one day of our sending a letter to his employer, his full-time working hours were restored and his employer agreed to make good the shortfall of salary that our client had suffered.

 

A client had two employees who had breached company policy and were wasting considerable amounts of company time on non work-related activities.

 

We helped the client through the process of suspending the employees, one of whom was successfully dismissed while the other resigned - with no claims being brought against the company as a result. This client was appreciative of the prompt way in which their concerns were dealt with and the fact that we took the pressure off them in dealing with things - they run a successful SME and have little time and less inclination to get embroiled in these sorts of distracting employment issues.