Employment Law and Your Business: Are You Compliant?

Employment law is complex and far reaching. For the average business woman, law is the last thing on anyone’s mind when they are in the midst of setting up their new business. But, ensuring that you are complaint is the business rule 101. You need to make sure that your business is adhering to the many employment laws.

Human resources and personnel are excellent tools to have at your disposal. It is the job of HR to ensure that the employment matters are dealt with. The rights of employees are far reaching. Failure to comply with them can result in costly penalties to the business. Court cases can be expensive. This can have a detrimental impact on new businesses.

Areas of Employment Law
There is a vast amount of laws covering the world of work. Recruitment, treatment of staff and dismissal, are to name but a few. Redundancy and retirement laws are also in abundance. Employment solicitors can help with this, so do not feel that this is something that you have to tackle alone.

Problem Areas
The most common kinds of employment issues are:

• Unfair dismissal
• Breach of contract
• Wage disputes
• Working time and annual leave
• Redundancy
• Disability discrimination
• Gender discrimination
• Racial discrimination
• Age discrimination
• Equal Pay

Tackling These Problem Areas
In order to remain compliant, you need to ensure that your business is acting within the parameters of the law. The employee should always be given an employment contract. But, you need to ensure that the critical areas are clearly outlined in the contract. Pay, flexibility and holidays should all be in the contract. Clearly defining your obligations is important. It also gives the employee a clear guideline of what to expect from their time in service.

Employment contracts can be tailored to suit the needs of your business. But, there are a wide range of templates online to get you started.

Your document needs to be watertight. You cannot expect to find loopholes in the contract. Set out in strong language what you expect. Once an employee has signed the contract it is a legally binding document.

Handbooks and Policies
Ensuring that everyone fulfils their contractual obligations can be difficult. With this in mind, employees should be given a copy of an employee handbook. Policies and procedures should be clearly outlined to avoid confusion. Do not give vague, opaque terms in these documents. Clarity and precision are needed. This will help strengthen the working relationship with you and your team.

Dismissal
No one likes the thought of having to dismiss staff. But, if this is done in accordance with work and employment laws, this ensures that the process is fair. Keep an audit of the reasons why an employee has been negligent. Ensure that HR sits in on all meetings. Follow due process before dismissing an employee. In an employment contract, you need to state what the grounds are for dismissal. If you do not, you could face penalties from a court proceeding. If an employee breaks these terms, audit and keep records of this. This will be the evidence that you need to ensure that you can dismiss this employee fairly.