Should you provide a written disciplinary report as well as a first/final warning letter to an employee?

HR Teams and Senior company employees across the UK will likely be aware of the stringent fairness and procedural steps that must be taken when instigating and managing an employee disciplinary procedure. These requirements are set down by various statutes including the Equality Act 2010, the Employment Rights Act 2004 and the Employee Relations Act 1999. They are also effectively managed through the legally significant Acas code; failure by an employer or an employee to follow the code is not illegal per se, but failure to adhere can sometimes lead to a 25% uplift/decrease in compensation ordered by the Employment…

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Season's Greetings from Partners Employment Law

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful festive season and prosperous New Year. Thank you for your support and business through this year, it has been a very busy one. Highlights for me are being recognised as a ‘leading individual’ within the London Employment Law offering by the Legal 500 and also being recognised as a reputable advisor to corporations by them. I am delighted that post Covid, in house training services has resume, the most popular of which are harassment training and training on dealing with disciplinary and grievance and personality clashes. As timing would…

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Hina Belitz published in 'Solicitors Journal' discussing sexual harassment at work

Our Partner Hina Belitz has been published in Solicitors Journal discussing the important issue of #MeToo and the rise in workplace sexual harassment claims.  The full article can be found on the SJ website here, but we have provided the text of the article below: Hina Belitz considers employers’ equality duties in sexual harassment cases It is an unfortunate reality that workplace Christmas parties are often followed by a stark rise in sexual harassment issues and claims. Aware of this, many organisations now implement safeguards around such events, such as PwC who are even organising ‘sober representatives’…

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The 'Online Signature' Clause in Settlement Agreements; what is it and what does it mean?

Settlement agreements are rare in the legal contract sphere with relation to the speed with which they can be offered, managed and signed off. The nature of the end of an employment relationship means that sometimes seeking a swift resolution, and allowing the individual to leave the workplace and move on, is key. As employment practitioners, key hold-ups in facilitating a speedy process can often come at the point of signing the agreement. You can organise a meeting within the hour, have a happy employee within a day after agreeing terms, but are then left waiting until the end of…

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Flexible working requests to become a 'day one right' after Government consultation

The world of work is an ever changing arena, but rarely has it undergone such a shift as during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Similar to the advent of email, the overall success of the government enforced requirement to ‘work from home’ led to a step change in opinion on working practices. This has since blossomed and introduced a new working model to the Zeitgeist; ‘flexible working’. Whilst flexible working, and indeed the ability to request some sort of amendment to working plans has been a legal possibility for some time, there were previously extensive restrictions and fetters on what could be…

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