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Industrial Relations

Well-run employers recognise the importance of the quality of their working relationships with their trade unions or staff council. Get them right and they can help to motivate and engage your workforce - get them wrong and they can bring your organisation to a halt. Our specialist Employee Relations Unit can help you review the effectiveness of your collective employee relations and provide timely, practical and robust advice when disputes arise.

What we do

When collective workforce issues arise, our pragmatic advice puts you in control of your strategy, allowing you to act confidently and decisively from the outset. But first we listen. We get to understand your organisation's key goals, so we can put them at the centre of anything we do for you.

Expert, practical solutions

We deliver expert practical solutions to complex employment issues. If your organisation is facing change we can provide a step-by-step guide on how to minimise risk and proceed as smoothly as possible.

We have a proven, trusted approach to employee relations and have advised many household names. Our successes include: having a TGWU strike over pension schemes called off through the failure to comply with ballot notification procedures; advising an electronics company over the transfer of 50 AMICUS members and the termination of the collective agreement; and successfully representing clients at the CAC over de-recognition issues.

What we are known for

We understand that, when you're in a highly-pressured situation, you need prompt, concise and practical advice – we won't waste your time by telling you things that you don't need to know. Our experience covers the full range from small-scale industrial skirmishes to major national strikes.

Detailed elements of our services

Managing strikes and other industrial action;
Drafting collective agreements;
Rights of trade union members and officers;
Disciplining trade union stewards and officers;
Collective bargaining;
Collective consultation on redundancies and TUPE;
Works councils;
Union recognition.

Employment and Pensions

By Alex Lock

For all the latest news and comment on employment and pensions law.

Employment and Pensions Group Webinars

By Alex Lock

For all the latest news and comment on employment and pensions law.

Shauna McFarland v Morelli Ice Cream Limited & Remo Di Vito (5722/18IT)

The Industrial Tribunal in NI found that former Morelli’s Ice Cream Ltd. employee, Shauna McFarland, had been victim of sexual harassment in the workplace, and reinforced that an employer is vicariously liable for the acts of its employee. The…

EPL Update – Amendments to the Employment Tribunal Rules

By Louise Bloomfield

Employment Practices Liability (“EPL”) insurers, broker and insureds will no doubt be aware that since the abolition of Employment Tribunal fees in 2017, there has been an increase in the number of Employment Tribunal Claims being submitted.…

Black Lives Matter – the new #MeToo?

By Louise Bloomfield

#MeToo is still very much a live and relevant issue for all regulated firms and solicitors alike, and the SRA has taken a keen interest in such matters as evidenced by some high profile prosecutions. In the wider employment law world, sex…

Wellbeing

By Clare Hughes-Williams

Law firms are undoubtedly challenging places to work no matter how good the culture within the firm. They have traditionally been fairly “macho” environments and although this is changing with so many more women entering the profession there is no…

TUPE Dismissals: The dismissal of an employee because of a bad working relationship with a colleague was a TUPE related dismissal

The dismissal of an employee on the day of a TUPE transfer because her new employer anticipated ongoing problems with a fellow employee was automatically unfair under TUPE

Disability Discrimination: Employer's knowledge of the disability

By Ceri Fuller

An employer had actual and constructive knowledge of an employee’s disability months before an OH report stated that her symptoms had lasted for more than a year.

Disability Discrimination: Employee was dismissed for a tendency to steal, and could not claim disability discrimination

An employee was dismissed for a tendency to steal, which is excluded from being a "disability" under the legislation. He could not therefore claim disability discrimination.

Workplace Sexual Harassment: Government to introduce statutory code of practice

The Government has published its response to the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s report of July last year on sexual harassment at work. It is agreed that a new statutory Code of Practice which Tribunals should take into account should be…

Majority of Court of Appeal find that Uber drivers are Workers

By Joanne Bell

The Court of Appeal (CoA), by a majority, has upheld the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decisions that Uber drivers should be classified as 'workers', not independent self-employed contractors, and therefore are entitled to…

The trials and tribulations of Santa Claus

By David Williams

Although normally Santa's most stressful time of year, the arrival of this Christmas season has come as something of a relief to him. The last 12 months have brought several legal difficulties, which the Grotto's legal team has had to address.