Employment Law
EMPLOYMENT LAW FIRM SWANSEA – EMPLOYER SOLICITORS SWANSEA
Swansea Employment Law Solicitors
We advise on a wide range of employment law issues workplace disputes on behalf of both employees and employers.
Areas we commonly assist clients with include, but are not limited to:
- Compromise agreements
- Unfair dismissal (including constructive dismissal)
- Gross misconduct
- Redundancy
- Breaches of employment contracts
- Drafting of employment contracts
- Bullying and harassment issues
- Racial discrimination
- Maternity and paternity leave
- Sexual harassment
- Sex discrimination
- Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) Regulations
- Confidential information disclosure issues
- Employment tribunals
Let’s examine a few areas in detail.
Unfair dismissal
There are two main categories of unfair dismissal – automatic unfair dismissal and contested unfair dismissal.
In cases of automatic unfair dismissal, the employer will automatically be considered to have unfairly dismissed an employee where certain reasons are used. The burden of showing that the reason did not apply to the decision will be on the employer. A dismissal will be automatically unfair where it is based on:
- An employee statutory maternity/paternity leave
- Trade union involvement
- An employee making a complaint/asserting a statutory right
- An employee disclosing information in line with the Public Interest Disclosure Act
Contested unfair dismissal does not involve automatically presuming that the employer was in the wrong and allows the employer to argue that the dismissal was fair. A wide range of reasons come under this category.
Constructive dismissal
Constructive dismissal is another type of unfair dismissal. It occurs where the working conditions or environment are made difficult/unbearable by the employer and the employee has to leave. There are a vast number of circumstances in which this type of dismissal can arise. Examples include: bullying, harassment or discrimination, humiliation in front of other employees, excessive discipline, sudden change of workplace location without adequate notice and sudden changes of employment conditions without consulting the employee first.
Discrimination under the Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act came into force in April 2010. It was introduced to help simplify the law and bring together different bits of legislation. Under the Act, organisations are under a duty to not discriminate against ‘protected characteristics’ when recruiting and employing people. These protected characteristics are characteristics of a person that employers are prohibited from discriminating against. Employers cannot discriminate on the basis of:
- Sexual orientation
- Gender reassignment
- Gender
- Race
- Age
- Disabilities
Unlike under previous legislation, under the Equality Act 2010, employees are in a position to bring joint claims to employment tribunals for discrimination based on multiple characteristics. In the past, a separate claim for each characteristic had to be made.
Local solicitors for local employers and employees
To find out what our Swansea employment law team can do to help, please get in touch at your earliest convenience.