Employment overview

Our expert lawyers deliver practical and commercial solutions to often complex employment issues

The laws and regulations that apply to relationships between employers and employees are complicated and often confusing. They are also growing at an alarming rate.  If you do not understand your rights – or respect the rights of your employees – your business can suffer.

Our employment lawyers deliver practical and commercial solutions to a broad range of public and private organisations worldwide, as well as high profile individuals. We have particular expertise in advising clients from the education, retail and public sectors.

Our core services include:

• A complete range of general advisory work on employment law - the A-Z of the employment relationships.
• Equal opportunities and diversity issues. We are acknowledged as a market leader in this area. As diversity management moves to the top of many companies’ agendas, our team is a leader in advising on compliance and best practice.
• Managing change continues to be a key requirement of UK companies and institutions. We are specialists in the planning and delivery of business re-organisation and culture change.
• When matters become contentious, we can assist on all aspects of employment litigation, including dispute resolution. We have a strong reputation for handling complex contentious work and High Court litigation, including the protection of confidential information and issues relating to team moves. 
• We also advise on the tax aspects of employment law and are able to call on the expertise of our Employee Incentives and Employment Tax team for specialist advice in connection with share incentive and employee tax issues. Our Employee Incentives team regularly helps design, implement and administrate all types of employee incentive and executive compensation programmes.

Our latest alerts, briefings & reports
HR strategies for dealing with business disruptions   This briefing is designed to help you prepare for the various issues which result from (expected and unexpected) disruptions to your day-to-day business operations. There are many causes for business disruptions, including the highly anticipated Olympic Games (the Games), UEFA's Euro 2012, severe weather conditions, troubles with the transport network and/or the flurry of recent strikes.  View full briefing
TUPE's service provision change: all the latest guidance   Under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), employees can transfer to a new employer in two ways: a business transfer or by way of a service provision change (SPC). A flurry of employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal (EAT) decisions on the SPC limb of TUPE brings contractors and clients some much needed clarity.  View full briefing
PAYE Real Time Information: what you need to know   In July 2010, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued a consultation document proposing changes to the PAYE system in order to address concerns regarding the operational efficiency of the current system. Subsequently, HMRC sought views on proposals to require employers to submit PAYE information as part of the employee payment process. View full briefing
Taxation of post-termination employee share and share option gains: changes ahead?   Since 6 April 2011, certain termination payments made to employees after issue of their P45 have been subject to a new tax regime implemented by the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations 2011. "Share-based payments" (including employee shares, share options and related gains) made after the issue of the employee's P45 were carved out of the new regime, but this is set to change. Under draft regulations recently published by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), with effect from 6 April 2012, employers will have to apply the new regime to all taxable termination payments which are not included in the employee's P45. This will include notional payments received on the post-termination exercise of share options and release of share awards.  View full briefing
Religion or belief discrimination    A number of recent developments in the area of religion and belief discrimination merit employers' attention.  View full briefing
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