Employment Tribunal Claims – How to Avoid Them

Employment Tribunal Claims – How to Avoid Them

An employment tribunal claim can cause a lot of problems for your business and could cost you a lot of money. Fortunately, there are some steps that you can take to avoid these proceedings completely. These steps should be taken when you are dealing with your employees.

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The Experience

Another tip is to hire an employment solicitor that has experience presenting and handling cases before employment tribunals. This is where your case will be heard and if the solicitor does not have the experience, they could present something incorrectly.

To determine this, you will need to ask the solicitor about the number of cases they have presented to employment tribunals over the past year.

You should look for a solicitor that puts their advice in writing to you after the initial consultation. This is very important because employment law can be very technical and complicated. The written advice will help you to prepare for any internal grievances and disciplinary meetings that might be scheduled.

The advice will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your claim or defence. With this, you can determine how to improve your case to ensure that you are taken seriously. If you do not have a written advice letter, you could forget some of the information which was provided in the initial consultation.

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Dealing With Conduct And Capability Matters

Another mistake that many employers make which leads to an employment tribunal claim is how they deal with employee capability. This should not be handled under your disciplinary procedures. It is recommended that you have a separate capability policy in your staff handbook which will deal with this.

Disciplinary policies should only be used when you are dealing with employees that wilfully misbehave. When you are dealing with employee capability, you need to ensure that this behaviour cannot be attributed to any disabilities.

If this is the case and proceedings are taken against them, the employee has the right to take your company to an employment tribunal.

If you are dealing with conduct issues, you will need to be careful as well. If the misconduct is alleged and there is no clear proof, the company will have to carry out a reasonable investigation.

This investigation will need to be conducted with an open mind and employees have to be given sufficient time to prepare for any disciplinary hearings.

Employment tribunal claims are something that you want to avoid because they can cause a lot of problems. If you want to avoid these claims, you need to carefully consider how you deal with your employees.

You have to use fair procedures and keep a paper trail of any investigations that you complete into misconduct allegations.

If you require further help and advice for a pending tribunal or feel that a work-related situation is heading that way, contact one of our experienced experts for help and support.

For any information relating to our services please give us a call and we will be very happy to help.

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