Business

Employment for employers

Being an employer is not always easy.

When employment issues crop up, it can be a stressful experience for everyone involved.  We aim to minimise that stress.

Our team, which includes three accredited specialists in employment law, will find out what outcome you are looking for and work with you towards that result in the most effective manner.

With decades of experience of advising employers and employees, we can identify issues quickly and get to the heart of the problem.

We know the red flags and will help your business navigate them to avoid making costly and damaging mistakes.

We can help you put the policies and handbooks in place to give your employees clarity and peace of mind on their rights.

When contentious issues arise, we can step in and make the process as straightforward as possible. We liaise with ACAS and represent you in Employment Tribunals, making sure that you have the most robust defence and that you meet all the procedural deadlines.

We support large and small, private and public employers who are dealing with the challenges, and rewards, of employing people. With experience of operating in a number of sectors, it is important to us to get to know your business thoroughly so that our advice fits with your specific business needs.

Our expertise

  • Getting the contract of employment and policies right
  • Intellectual property protection
  • Restrictive covenants and post-termination restrictions
  • Handling employee personal information
  • Monitoring employee communications and activities
  • Subject Access Requests and data breaches
  • Social media use and technology in the workplace
  • Avoiding discrimination
  • Equality, diversity and inclusion
  • Gender pay gap reporting
  • Making reasonable adjustments
  • Employee benefits
  • Wages and national minimum wage requirements
  • Working time regulations – the complexities of paid annual leave
  • Working time rules relating to rest periods and rest breaks and maximum working hours
  • Employee or worker or self-employed?
  • We can review and draft your documents and advise on the risks
  • Managing difficult employees
  • Managing employee absence – long term / short term absence
  • Industrial relations, collective bargaining and strike action
  • Workplace grievances
  • Whistleblowing claims and complaints
  • Redundancy and restructuring
  • TUPE transfers under the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations 2006
  • Employment references
  • Interview questions to avoid!
  • Recruitment best practice
  • Risks arising in the recruitment process and the need for reasonable adjustments
  • Breach of contract, resignation and constructive dismissal
  • Protected conversations and Settlement Agreements
  • Redundancy and lay-off
  • Termination of employment, dismissing and exiting employees
  • Unfair and wrongful dismissal
  • Employment law training for managers and/or staff
  • Experienced in defending all types of claim
  • We will fight your corner and represent your organisation throughout the proceedings
  • Transparency about costs
  • Commercial advice about the pros and cons of settlement
  • Creating compliant employee handbooks
  • Disciplinary procedures – misconduct / serious misconduct / gross misconduct
  • Flexible working requests
  • Managing performance – Performance management processes / performance improvement plans
  • Updating workplace policies to reflect current laws
  • Workplace Policies and Handbooks

Why BTO?

  • A vastly experienced team with over 100 years of experience
  • Every team member is a lawyer
  • Three accredited employment law specialists
  • Ranked (individually and as a team) in Chambers UK and The Legal 500
  • Acting for both employers and employees, we are versatile and see both perspectives
  • An excellent reputation in our field, we regularly receive conflict referrals from our competitors
  • A range of experts at our fingertips for your benefit (for example specialists in data protection, governance, crime, dispute resolution, real estate and corporate)
  • Always responsive to your needs
  • Excellent client feedback received on a regular basis – see our testimonials below
  • Operate in a range of sectors
  • Competitive pricing options offered
  • Member of an international network of lawyers should you require advice from outside the UK (access to 4,500 lawyers from across 90 firms in 60 countries)
  • We can offer you third party broker legal expenses insurance cover

Who we work with

  • Charities
  • Insurers
  • Membership organisations
  • PLCs
  • SMEs
  • Other law firms via our Employment Law Consultancy Services

Employment Law Consultancy Services

If you are a legal firm and you do not provide employment law advice currently, or you are unable to act due to conflict issues, we would be delighted to help you enhance your legal services portfolio for your clients.

We cover all aspects of employment law and HR issues, from recruitment through to disciplinary, redundancy, dismissal, settlement agreements and beyond.

We would simply be an extension to your existing legal team, and you can involve us to the extent that you feel is appropriate, depending on the circumstances. We can engage directly with your client(s), or provide you with advice to pass on to your client(s).

If you would like to discuss our consultancy services, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Our fees

We will discuss our fees with you at the outset. These could include hourly rates to allow you to “pay as you go”, or we can agree fee quotes for pieces of work or a retainer arrangement. We can also explore Employment Legal Expenses Insurance options (covering costs and awards). Contact us to discuss, or to make an appointment.

For more information

Laura Salmond

Partner

+44 (0)141 225 5315

Email me

Dawn Robertson

Partner

+44 (0)131 222 3242

Email me

Caroline Carr

Chair, Partner

+44(0)141 225 5263

Email me

MEET THE TEAM

Also of interest

What people say...

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