Common Legal Mistakes Made by Employers in England

When running a business, there is often a challenge between striving to make your business successful and being a good employer. No matter how profitable your business becomes, it must not override your responsibilities to effectively handle employment law issues and keep up with your obligations. To help, this article explores some common legal mistakes and how to avoid them.

Not Having a Written Statement of Particulars

It is not a legal requirement to have your employees’ employment contracts in writing. However, it is a legal requirement to hand them a written statement of particulars within two months of employment with you. TA written statement of particulars is a document setting out key information regarding an employee’s job with you. By creating this document, you can refer to its terms, helping avoid confusion and resolve disputes. 

Unfortunately, some employers think it is unnecessary to have a written statement of particulars. The effect of not having one means employers might treat their staff differently when it comes to dismissing them.

Poor Ways of Dealing With Grievances

As an employer, you must, by law, implement a disciplinary and grievance procedure. Likewise, you must follow this procedure when an employee raises a grievance. Whilst it is not a legal requirement to mirror the ACAS code, your disciplinary and grievance policy is something an employment tribunal will consider, should a dispute escalate. Where your policy does not mirror the ACAS code, you could pay 25% more compensation than you otherwise would have. 

Likewise, it is essential to deal with grievances promptly and correctly to prevent issues from escalating. Your disciplinary and grievance procedure should:

• detail how your staff can raise grievances;
• identify who your staff should communicate with and how; and
• provide a timeframe for each of the steps within the procedure. 

Not Dealing With Disciplinary Matters Correctly 

As an employer, you must also effectively manage discipline issues in your business. Having a fair and consistent approach is critical. As such, your disciplinary and grievance procedure should specify how your business will deal with such issues. 

Unfortunately, failing to deal with disciplinary matters correctly can lead to your employee making employment tribunal claims for unfair dismissal. So, it is necessary to deal with discipline issues promptly, thoroughly and fairly, ensuring that you investigate the matter fully. If you find an employee guilty of misconduct, you must establish reasonable grounds for your belief. 

Indirectly Discriminating

Additionally, it is vital to understand your obligations to prevent not only direct discrimination but also instances of indirect discrimination. Similar to direct discrimination, indirect discrimination is where you unlawfully treat an employee differently based on a protected characteristic. There are nine protected characteristics, including race, disability, and sex. 

Failing to Take Action With Those on Long-term Sick Leave

There will also be times when you need to take action regarding your employees on long-term sick leave. Providing you follow a fair procedure when doing so, issues can be dealt with. Unfortunately, many employers shy away from taking any action as they fear that they are not allowed to dismiss employees on long-term sick leave where necessary and could face an employment tribunal if they do.

Avoiding Dealing With Performance Issues

Further, if you experience performance issues with your employees, it is essential to deal with these promptly. You should follow your procedure for capability or performance management. Correctly dealing with performance issues can potentially resolve a problem affecting your business performance.

Key Takeaways

Employment law is ever-changing, making it challenging to keep up to date with important updates. However, there are some legal mistakes that employers commonly find themselves in. For example, your business might have a poor or ineffective way of dealing with grievances and disciplinary matters. The effect of these mistakes can escalate to a dispute in an employment tribunal. 

If you need help understanding your employment obligations in England and Wales, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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