Disputes and contentious matters

No one wants a dispute to end up at a tribunal. But if you do find yourself in court, we will handle the case from start to finish, reducing pressure and minimising costs. We will provide you with a dedicated lead and offer a tailored pricing structure to reflect the complexity of different types of tribunal claim. We can give you peace of mind during a potentially stressful matter – we will handle everything. ​ We will support you and your organisation throughout the tribunal case – we will handle the case from start to finish including: liaising with Acas dealing with employee representatives drafting the response attending preliminary hearings recommending and negotiating settlements drafting witness statements presenting the employer's case on the day handling all the case administration and correspondence before, during and after the hearing. We have an excellent track record in employment litigation and handle dozens of claims each year. For example in two years we handled 104 claims and achieved a 99% success rate (case settled to the client's satisfaction, withdrawn by the claimant or the client won at tribunal).

We have extensive experience supporting employers to draft and negotiate exit terms through a Settlement Agreement, including why and when you might use one, the risks and benefits, constructing the terms and handling the documentation. We can lead or support the whole process from start to finish.

We can support or lead any element of a redundancy project, whether it is supporting you with volume administration or consultations, managing the whole project from start to finish or providing redundancy outplacement support. Our team can: ​ Advise on collective redundancy processes and smaller scale redundancies. Produce project plans, timetables, communications and collateral for consultation and redundancy projects. Train your line managers and employee representatives where required. Manage consultations – working alongside your line managers to ensure meetings are legally compliant. Respond to and write questions and answers, and deal with administration either on behalf of your organisation or as an extension of your existing HR team. Support the appeal process. Provide outplacement services – bespoke programmes fulfilled by experienced coaches and occupational psychologists. We have over 50 years experience advising on large scale reorganisations, redundancies and changing terms and conditions, collective consultation, and TUPE. We are proud to offer commercial, pragmatic and legally sound advice to help protect our clients and enable them to thrive. We take a practical approach, adapting to your own ways of working to provide a solution that best meets the needs of your individual organisation.

We have deep expertise in all aspects of employee transfers, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations and TUPE-related redundancy. We have the resource and scale to support any element of a TUPE project. Whether you need help with administration, consultations, or the whole project, we can provide it. Our experts can: Conduct due diligence – TUPE In, (incoming terms and conditions, and providing advice on measures that cannot be supported owing to economic, technical or organisational reasons). Support or lead a TUPE In or Out process (such as where you are divesting part of your business), insourcing or outsourcing services and preparing for a TUPE transfer. Assist with consultations. Respond to and write questions and answers, and deal with administration either on behalf of your organisation or as an extension of your existing HR team. Train your HR team and line managers where required. ​​ We have acted as overall project manager in large projects, following a structured project management approach including project plans, communication and stakeholder engagement plans and steering and governance arrangements.

We have a wealth of experience assisting employers in all aspects of Trade Union and collective bargaining including: ​ Supporting clients with applications by Trade Unions for statutory recognition. Planning and implementing collective bargaining strategies to achieve commercial objectives. Implementing strategies to anticipate, avoid, minimise and overcome industrial action and disputes. Negotiating, drafting and interpreting collective agreements. Negotiating pay deals and pay cuts with Trade Unions. Negotiating and consulting directly with Trade Unions and conducting related litigation.

Performance management, disciplinary action, grievances in the workplace and termination of employment are the most common, challenging and inherently risky processes in people management. As well providing practical advice to help you deal with the situation to best effect and achieve a solution that best meets the needs of your individual organisation we can also conduct disciplinary and grievance meetings on your behalf, or support your managers through those meetings and processes.

Any incidence of employee misconduct that may result in dismissal must be investigated properly or risk that any later dismissal will be unfair. Similarly, grievances and whistleblowing will require thorough investigation. As well as advising on the conduct and outcomes of investigations we can also investigate and assist you to determine the right response to ensure procedural fairness and help protect the organisation. This ensures you are able to rely on the outcomes of the investigation in any subsequent steps, disciplinary action or litigation. We can help with: Employee misconduct investigation Grievance and whistleblowing investigation Investigation outcome response Manager training Workplace mediation Conflict resolution We can also train your managers to conduct effective, legally compliant workplace investigations helping to safeguard your organisation from the cost of unfair dismissals. When an investigation is not the right response, or formal action has not resolved matters we can also help with workplace mediation. We can help you to recognise when an investigation is not, or no longer, appropriate. We can act as mediators to resolve conflict in a fair and compliant manner.