Employment Law and HR Support

Square Peg HR can assist with all aspects of employment law, from creating contracts of employment to tribunal representation.

We’re not simply HR consultants, we are employment lawyers with extensive experience of matters such as settlement agreements, unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing and TUPE.

Employment Law - what we can do to help

  • The law says that every employer must provide a written statement of the main terms and conditions of employment to every employee. For most employers this document represents their contract with their employee. When everything is going well, typically no one looks at or refers to their contract. However, when there is a problem then having the right contract in place with sufficient details is important. Better still, it could help to avoid the issue in the first place. Square Peg HR can prepare your contracts ensuring that they are sufficient detailed and legally compliant.

  • All employers must have in place Discipline and Grievance Procedures which should meet the current ACAS Code of Practice. All employees should be made aware of these policies and procedures and have access to them.

    Square Peg HR will help you to draft policies and procedures that are both compliant, meet the needs of your business and also meet the required standards set out by ACAS.

    No one likes dealing with disciplinary matters and likely it isn’t something you’ll be doing every day, so to have a legally qualified HR practitioner to discuss the matter with – and agree the best way forward – will help to smooth the path to a satisfactory outcome.

    Square Peg HR will be with you throughout to advise and support and if necessary and, where the matter is particularly complex or sensitive, will support you in person at your premises. We will take you from the investigatory stage through to the final outcome. We will provide you with any papers or correspondence you need on the way.

  • When you are faced with carrying out an internal investigation you may want to consider appointing an independent investigator – for example, to avoid compromising your relationships with your existing employees or it may be that you simply don’t have the on-site resources. Square Peg HR has considerable experience in carrying out a wide variety of employment related investigations in relation to potential disciplinary and grievance matters. We possess the skills to carry out a comprehensive investigation sensitively and with a thorough understanding of the law.

  • Should a disciplinary matter result in a dismissal, Square Peg will be with you to ensure that your processes and procedures are compliant, as well as ensuring that the decision to dismiss is reasonable in all the circumstances. We will also ensure that you follow due process including any appeals, all in accordance with the ACAS Code of Practice.

  • Put simply, discrimination is about the right to be treated fairly in all employment related decisions. Whilst most employers will do all they can to ensure that a culture exists within their organisation that promotes equality and fairness, discrimination continues to exist in various forms.

    The laws around discrimination were combined in the Equality Act 2010. This is a complex and lengthy piece of legislation and covers all areas of discrimination from pre-employment (for example advertising, selection procedures and interviews) to post employment (for example the provision of references to former employees).

    Square Peg HR will support you in dealing with any claims of discrimination within your organisation. Our lawyers will guide you through the correct processes and if necessary, represent you at the Employment Tribunal, if matters get that far.

  • Settlement Agreements (formerly known as Compromise Agreements) arise where the employment relationship has come to an end, and the employer wants to ensure that the employee will not bring any claim to the Employment Tribunal.

    Square Peg HR will ensure that the terms of the Settlement Agreement are the best you can achieve and that the Agreement is fully compliant with current law. We will draft an Agreement with you appropriate to the circumstances.

  • Our team has considerable experience of representing clients at tribunal – not only will we considerably reduce the stress of being involved in an ET, we will support you at a vastly reduced cost in comparison to a legal firm.

    Employees are no longer obliged to pay a fee to submit an employment tribunal claim but do still need to through the early conciliation process. Navigating the conciliation and ET process can be complex and you are advised to seek assistance as quickly as possible – get in touch and we can take the stress out of a difficult situation and help mitigate your losses.

  • TUPE stands for the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations. Despite the fact that is has been around for a very long time (since 1981) it is still much misunderstood and feared by most employers. Its purpose is to protect the rights of workers when their organisation is bought over or transfers to a new employer. The law requires both the old and new employer to follow specific procedures.

    Square Peg HR will guide you through the processes required to meet your legal obligations, whether it is a full sale and purchase or the outsourcing of a service.

Square Peg HR Directors at laptop

We also provide HR Support in the following areas - this isn’t an exhaustive list of everything we can do; if you have a people related issue of any kind, get in touch!

  • It is important to ensure that you have appropriate employment policies in place that reflects what happens in your business, gives you the protection and flexibility you need, as well as being compliant with the law.

    The polices should explain how the organisation will deal with issues when they arise and show that the organisation operates in a fair and consistent way towards their employees.

    Square Peg HR recommend that you have the following essential policies in place:

    Recruitment and Selection process

    Equal Opportunity

    Dignity at work (including Harassment and bullying)

    Health & Safety (where five or more staff are employed)

    Discipline and Grievance

    Absence Policy

    Holidays/Annual leave policy

    Family policies including parental rights such as maternity, paternity, adoption, parental (including shared parental) and dependents leave

    Flexible Working

    Whistleblowing

    Data Protection

    Square Peg HR will ensure that each policy is drafted to suit to your particular organisational needs in straightforward language that can be understood by everyone.

    Having the right polices in place and ensuring that all employees have access to them is essential if the organisation finds itself in a position where it needs to rely on one of its policies.

  • Employers likely know that most employees have the right to up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave. However, the laws and regulations governing maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave are long and complex.

    There is now the additional right to shared parental leave introduced for parents whose baby is born on or after 5th April 2015; shared parental leave does not have to be taken in one block so an employee could request to take their leave in separate periods up to 52 weeks after the baby is born making it harder for employers to manage and monitor what time off employees are entitled to and what they should be paid.

    From 2023, flexible working requests are a ‘day one’ right.

    Employers must follow a statutory process in dealing with the requests and all requests must be treated ‘reasonably’. An employer can refuse a request if they have a good business reason for doing so.

    Square Peg can help you by providing advice and support for any issues arising around maternity/paternity and flexible working. By having the right policies in place together with the appropriate and compliant documentation, we will help you negotiate your way through the maze of maternity/paternity and flexible working regulations.

  • All employers will have staff that are absent from time to time – either short or long term and for a variety of reasons. Employers are required to deal with absences fairly so having a policy in place that sets out the employers’ expectations and ensuring that it is available to all employees is crucial.

    Normally a policy would include sections dealing with short term and long term absence, what is expected from the employee and what support is available from the employer. It would deal with how to monitor absences and ‘back to work’ interviews. It may also set out any policy on Occupational Health – helpful in long term absence scenarios.

    Square Peg HR will help you to have a clear policy in place to deal with absence for whatever reason.

  • Performance management is a means of getting better results from the organisation, teams and individuals by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of planned goals, standards and competence requirements. It’s a process for establishing shared understanding about what is to be achieved; it should be forward looking and developmental.

    Whether you are looking to review your current performance management processes or are keen to implement a new system of appraisal or support and supervision, Square Peg HR can advise on the best strategy that fits with the culture, ethos and values of your organisation.

  • It is never easy having to consider making an employee or employees redundant. The law requires that employers follow a fair procedure and that the need for the redundancy is genuine and not covering up another reason for dismissal.

    For there to be a redundancy, one of three circumstances must be present:

    You must have ceased or intend to cease carrying on the business for which the employee was employed

    You must have ceased or intend to cease carrying on business in the place where the employee was employed

    The requirement for employees to carry out work of a particular kind at a particular place must have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish

    You need to carry out meaningful consultation with those whose jobs are at risk, and you must ensure that any selection process is fair and does not discriminate against any at risk employee.

  • Most employees now have the right to decide at what age they will retire. For most jobs there is no longer a set legal retirement age and employers must not treat an employee unfairly on the basis of their age, their decision to retire or not. An employer must not:

    treat an employee detrimentally because they are thinking about retiring or could already take their work pension or State pension.

    suggest the employee should retire before or during a dismissal process make the mistake of thinking it has the right to change an employee’s employment contract once they take any pension.

    An employee does not need to retire when they reach their State pension age.

    Square Peg HR can help ensure that your organisation does not treat anyone at work unfairly and keep you appraised of the Equality Act 2010.