Employees

Coodes Solicitors / Personal Legal / Employees

Employees

As an employee you will have the benefit of a substantial amount of protection under our employment law legislation. To gain the benefit of that protection you will need to know what your rights are, how they are enforced and what you have to do to make sure they apply to you. Coodes’ employment lawyers have a great deal of experience in assisting employees who are unsure of their rights or needing to enforce them. We are there when you need us and have a number of different pricing options to make that advice and assistance accessible to you.

Knowing your rights and responsibilities

The legislation and regulatory regime in the employment context is complex and difficult to interpret at times. A lot of information is available to assist employees in knowing what their rights are – www.gov.uk; www.acas.co.uk. There are times when employees need to know how that information applies to them and their employment circumstances.

We offer a one hour fixed fee interview for £150 plus VAT to assist staff in ensuring that their rights are not over-ridden and what to do if they are or are likely to be.

Discrimination

All employees have the right not to be discriminated against and to be treated fairly. The law provides remedies where staff of one of the “protected categories” are treated differently from others. The protected categories are – age, gender, sexual orientation, religion or philosophical belief, race, ethnic origin or disability. The legislation applies from recruitment, to training and promotion, terms and conditions of employment, and to termination of employment and sometimes even after termination. Male and female staff also have the right to be paid the same for broadly similar work. Where this becomes an issue in the employment context, it can become very difficult both between employer and employee and between employees. The issues can be very emotive. Careful advice is needed to progress and resolve these issues.

We can:

Advise you where you think that you may have been treated differently and unfairly because you have one of the protected characteristics
Take any consequent action through the Tribunal and Court system where disputes remain unresolved

Grievances

Difficulties between staff that need resolution can sometimes arise, staff can sometimes find themselves in conflict with their employer. Use of the grievance procedure can be a requirement before taking formal action that might lead to your resignation (constructive dismissal). All organisations should have a grievance procedure that can be used to enable these issues to be dealt with. These differences can sometimes be emotive and difficult to handle.

We can:

Advise you of your rights when relationships at work need resolving
Assist you to put the formal grievance process in place

Disciplinary action and Dismissal

When things go wrong at work, one of the rights of employers is to take formal disciplinary action and ultimately dismissal of staff. When and how this is done is strictly set out in employment legislation, and employers need to follow a fair procedure. When under threat of this sort of action, employees should get proper advice to make sure that proper reasons are being used to take action against you and that proper processes are being followed. If employment is terminated there is the right to take the matter to the Employment Tribunal.

We can:

Advise you about any disciplinary process being taken against you and how to respond to it
Negotiate the terms of
Assist you in making a claim to an Employment Tribunal
Represent you at any Tribunal Hearing

Redundancy

When organisations re-structure for financial or organisational reasons, staff can be made redundant. Employers have to follow proper procedures. Selection processes need to be clear and applied fairly. When concluded, redundancy payments are often subject to formal agreements upon which proper legal advice is needed (frequently called “Settlement Agreements”)

We can:

Assist you when you are subject to a possible redundancy process to ensure that you know your rights and that proper processes are followed
Advise you on proposed terms of settlement and complete the Settlement Agreement for you
Take any consequent action, if necessary through the Tribunal system.

When you leave – restrictive covenants, social media and IP rights

UK law recognises the right of individuals to follow and develop their careers how and where they wish, and with whom. However employers also have the right to protect their businesses – their trade secrets, customers, processes and future plans. Getting the balance right is not always straightforward. Employees will need to know that the restrictions that are being imposed on them are fair and lawful.

We can:

Consider and advise you on your contract terms as to whether and how enforceable they are
Deal with and challenge any unfair and unlawful restrictions by corresponding and negotiating with your employer
Deal with any formal court enforcement of restrictive rights

Employment Tribunals

Employment Tribunals

The provision of advice and representation to employees in relation to the bringing of claims before the Employment Tribunal against an employer for unfair or wrongful dismissal

We charge £3,000 – £5,000 + VAT on average for this work where you are paying your legal costs on an hourly basis for a claim which proceeds to include a final hearing. This estimate is just an average price based on recent instructions; the actual cost to you will depend on a number of factors which we will discuss with you if you decide to instruct us.
The charge is based on an average of our usual hourly charging-rates of between £110.00 to £280.00 per hour.
We may use damages-based agreements (commonly known as no win no fee agreements), in which case you will be responsible for paying us a third of any sum you recover. If you are unsuccessful you may be required to pay us for the initial advice received prior to the Agreement commencing.
You may have the benefit of being able to claim under a legal expenses policy which would cover your legal fees.
There are sometimes additional costs you may have to pay to include for example counsel’s fees and medical expert fees. Depending on the length and complexity of a final hearing counsel’s fees would likely be between £750 – £2,000 plus VAT. The instruction of counsel may reduce the fee you would pay to us. Medical expert fees will vary from case to case but the range of £200 to £2,000 can be expected depending on the expert used and what they are being asked to assess.
In most Employment Tribunal cases legal costs are not recoverable from the other party irrespective of the outcome.
Our fees are calculated only for wrongful and unfair dismissal claims and should your claim include other heads of claim (for example discrimination), we reserve the right to charge you additional sums depending on the circumstances.
We will advise you if you should consider claiming your costs from a third party for example a trade union.

We understand the stress and urgency involved in dealing with employment matters. Below are examples of the likely different stages:

Initial advice and assessment;
Pre-action work to include pre-claim conciliation;
Negotiating settlement;
Disclosure and bundle preparation;
Advocacy at a final hearing or the instruction of counsel where necessary;
Enforcement
Witness statements;
Preparing a Schedule of Loss;
Issuing proceedings;
Initial advice and assessment.

Please contact us if you wish to discuss this further.

Pricing

We have a number of options that you can use to cover our charges and to enable you to keep control of your legal expenses:

Fixed price consultation for a price of £150 plus VAT for a one hour meeting
Fixed and staged prices to cover specific steps depending on the amount of work that is needed
Legal expenses may be covered by your personal insurance policies. You can make a claim and ask your insurer to cover our charges
Damages based agreements for claims made to a Tribunal whereby you only pay our charges if you are successful.
In certain cases we may be able to offer alternative funding agreements to include conditional fee and damage-based agreements. To allow us to properly assess whether or not such agreements would be suitable we will require between one and two weeks to assess your case once we have received all relevant documentation from you.

If you wish to find out more about the process and likely timescales, please look at our “Employment Tribunal – process” pdf.