Employment

Meet the team

Part 1: For Employers

We can draft employment contracts which can be especially useful in protecting your business from the misuse of information and contacts gained by senior staff during their employment with you when they leave.

We can draft Settlement Agreements to prevent severance packages being used to fund a claim by former employees against you.

We can assist in getting right any review of an employee’s performance or fitness for work that might lead to dismissal as well as any disciplinary proceedings against them or grievance procedure initiated by them. Although any error of procedure might seem a technicality it can lead to a finding of Unfair Dismissal against you by an Employment Tribunal.

We can assist when moving employees to a new employer to ensure they have no claim against you under the Transfer of Undertaking (“TUPE”) Regulations and we can assist our Commercial lawyers during any sale or purchase of a business or other movement of employees by you.

We can act for you in defence of a Claim against you in the Employment Tribunal or the Courts.

Part 2: For Employees

We can advise on any “Settlement Agreement” for a severance package and that advice is normally paid for by your employer if you sign. We can also help negotiate a better deal. We do not charge for the advice if, on that advice, you do not sign.

We can advise on any contract of employment which can be especially important if it has terms against working for competitors or making contact with customers or key staff when you leave.

We can act for you in any claim against your employer for unpaid notice pay and perks, (or up to 2 years unpaid pay and perks whilst still employed), unfair dismissal, discrimination, victimisation and claims against your employer for bullying by work colleagues or your line manager. If you have not been consulted or have detrimental changes to your contract of employment following a sale or merger of the business that employed you or they outsourcing the work you do or where you have had customers take the work you do in house, then we could also be able to help.

We also advise on holiday, working hours, location of work or whistleblowing disputes and those on long term sick leave or garden leave.

Meet the team

Claims by individuals for unfair and/or wrongful dismissal.

Dealing with disputes relating to your employment can be stressful. Here at Berry Redmond Gordon & Penney we have an experienced team who can help in two main areas:

Wrongful dismissal: The incorrect termination of an employee’s contract by an employer in breach of statutory or contractual employment’s terms, resulting in a loss of income and/or benefits
Unfair dismissal: Your employer does not have a good reason for dismissing you, or has not followed a fair disciplinary or dismissal process

Stephen Mackie, is a solicitor with over 40 year’s experience of employment claims. He is supervised by Morwenna Homewood who is a solicitor and partner in the firm who also has 17 year’s experience in this area of law

How much is it likely to cost?

If we take on the case Stephen charges at the rate of £282 + VAT per hour

Typical costs are driven by the complexity of the case and are likely to be:

Type of claim	Complexity	Activity	Likely cost
Wrongful dismissal	Simple	Pre-work and ½ day final hearing	£3,000 + VAT
Wrongful dismissal	Complex	Pre-work, Barrister support and a 2 day final hearing	£20,000 + VAT
Unfair dismissal	Simple	Pre-work and 1 day final hearing	£5,000 +VAT
Unfair dismissal	Complex	Pre-work Barrister support and a 4 day final hearing	£40,000 +VAT

Sometimes we can combine claims for unfair and wrongful dismissal together as it can produce savings of about 30% on the combined costs of bringing individual claims.

If a case settles early without going to court expect to save up to 70% of these fees, or 10% for those that settle on the day of the final hearing.

Costs are not usually awarded to the losing side.

How long will this take?

A typical case will usually take around 40 weeks to gather evidence and prepare for a hearing. However more complex cases can take longer.

Stage	Main activities	Timescale
Fact finding & first steps	Investigate and assess the claim Assess loss of income Refer to ACAS File the claim	Up to 13 weeks
Employer’s response	Assess the Employer’s response Complete a case strategy review	Up to 2 weeks
Preliminary hearing	Initial hearing by an employment judge	Up to 2 days
Document collation	Disclose relevant documents	Up to 13 weeks
Supporting evidence	Collect witness statements	Up to 13 weeks
Settlement negotiations	Propose a settlement or assess any Employer settlement proposal	Up to 2 weeks
Final hearing	Assist in the creation of the court pack Engage barristers and experts Ensure attendance of witnesses. Attend the hearing	Up to 13 weeks Court hearing up to 4 days
After the hearing	If successful, attend a remedy hearing .	Usually on the day of the hearing

Neither the Tribunal nor ACAS currently charge fees for their service. Barristers and any experts will charge for their work (with VAT), and we normally pay your witnesses their expenses.

We do not offer specific tax or financial advice but can advise where the advice is incidental to the claim itself.

Acting for Employers in response to claims for unfair and/or wrongful dismissal.