Labour law

The employment relationship is the one part of a business that keeps changing after it has been agreed. People are promoted, move to another site, go on leave, work from home three days a week, or are asked to do something the original contract never mentioned. Each of those is a small legal event, and most of them are handled informally — which works until the day someone leaves badly and the paperwork has to explain what was actually agreed.

Employment law governs that whole arc, from the first offer to the last payslip, and it applies whether or not anyone wrote the change down:

• the rules on the contract itself — fixed term or indefinite, trial arrangements, and what a clause may not require;
• the rules on working time, rest, overtime and the records an employer is expected to keep;
• the rules on pay, benefits, expenses and what may be deducted;
• the rules on illness, parental and other leave, and the protection that attaches to them;
• the rules on changing a job’s content, place or hours without the change counting as a dismissal;
• the rules on dismissal — grounds, procedure, notice, and what a dispute over it costs;
• the rules on restrictive covenants, confidentiality and what an employee may take with them;
• the rules on employee representation, consultation and collective bargaining;
• the rules on transfers of a business, and which staff obligations move with it.

Our lawyers can support you in all these areas of law.