How Can my Business Prepare for Potential Employee Disputes?
In June 2020, approximately 9.1 million employees from 1.1 million different employers were furloughed in the UK as part of the government's job retention scheme. With this scheme now winding down and lockdown eased, many businesses are having to make some difficult decisions and plan for the future. Our team is already seeing an increase in enquiries and strongly expect employment disputes due to potential discrimination or victimisation claims to continue being a major source of concern for employers across the UK.
A rise in discrimination and victimisation claims following redundancies and furlough decisions is anticipated.
Employers looking to get businesses operating as normally as possible are facing a variety of challenges; from restructuring and redundancies to updating contracts and ensuring legally compliant handbooks are in place. It's common to see senior teams trying to tackle these issues themselves, particularly when a difficult economic climate is adding even more financial pressure. However, it's key that companies understand that not taking specialist advice often leads to higher costs in the long term by exposing them to much higher legal fees and lengthy legal disputes.
With the threat of this potential burden on businesses, my team quickly identified the need for a different approach - an insurance backed offering that could cost-effectively support employers that were very likely going to need legal guidance in the coming months. As a result, our team has introduced a bespoke cost-efficient insurance backed employment protection scheme which covers companies against employee claims and offers unlimited access to a dedicated legal employment specialist.
Many businesses are not aware that legal fees are rarely recoverable in employment tribunal proceedings and so, they may remain out of pocket even if they were successful. Our employment protection scheme removes that obstacle, ensuring that the client can defend claims that lack merit without fearing the cost of doing so.
Unlike other protection schemes on the market where qualified advice is not included, we were determined to make our offering bespoke as well as including personalised support from the employment team who are available whenever it is required. Our clients only work with our close-knit team, meaning they get to know us and our team can learn in detail how they work. This is the only way to ensure the advice provided is not only accurate but tailored to their commercial needs.
We hope our insurance backed scheme helps a wide range of regional businesses to come out oflockdown prepared and stronger as a result. If you think your business might benefit from our employment protection scheme, send me a message or contact the commercial litigation team.
