Employment Law Support Services

HR Support Services

The primary functions of any HR support services include the following :-

Employment Legislation
Understanding and interpreting current employment law legislation is an important part of any HR support section within a business, whether in-house or outsourced to a specialised company. Getting this wrong can cost a business a lot of money in fines and compensation so ensuring all the business polices are up to date with current laws is a must. New employment laws are emerging on a regular basis and since in law, ignorance is no defence, a business needs to ensure that it implements all the current requirements.

Disciplinary and staff claim issues
HR support services departments are responsible for dealing with any disciplinary issues against staff who break company rules or who break laws while at the business premises or on company business. There are many levels of warnings which by law must be followed before an employees contract can be terminated.

Staff recruitment
Although there is usually a large departmental input into recruitment, hr support departments are usually ultimately responsible for writing and placing adverts for staff including such things as qualifications or experience required, organising and conducting interviews with potential employees and the letters and contracts of employment.

Staff training
Training of staff includes the running of courses on specific issues such as health and safety at work, systems training, company policies as well as people management. Often a business wants to introduce a new policy or roll-out a new system or way of doing things. The HR support department is usually responsible for this function

Organisation of people
This can include such things as ensuring that enough staff are available on particular days, for example a supermarket hr department needs to be able to assess in advance what it's labour requirement will be on a particular day, perhaps by using previous years sales figures, to determine how many staff need to be made available. They will then ensure this by communicating directly with the staff. For example, it may be very busy in the run-up to the Christmas period so extra part time staff may need to be recruited or overtime for existing staff arranged to meet customer demand.

Employment Lawyer Services Help, Support and Assistance

Reducing Workplace Disputes through Employment Law Reforms

Government proposals announced by Business Secretary, Vince Cable in November 2011following consultation on resolving workplace disputes are being branded as some of the most radical employment law reforms in years.

On 6th April 2012 the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims will increase from one year to two years. It is anticipated that this legal amendment will reduce the number of unfair dismissal claims received by Employment Tribunals by approximately 2,000. Nevertheless, concerns have been raised that although unfair dismissal claims may decrease as a result of this, claims that require no qualifying period made in relation to discrimination and whistle-blowing are likely to increase as a consequence.

We are also expecting the Ministry of Justice to report on proposals to introduce tribunal fees in 2012. The intention of which is to enable employees with low incomes to lodge a claim without being required to pay a fee to do so. On the other hand, employers could be fined up to £5,000 in addition to damages imposed should they lose a case. The result of such changes is likely to mean an increase number of cases are settled rather than being taken to a full hearing.

Tribunals will also gain new powers in 2012 and subsequently have the ability to instruct employers to conduct and make public a pay audit should they breach the Equality Act 2010. The government is planning to consult on the removal of the current duty on organisations to protect employees from third-party harassment. However, as this provision is underlined by EU legislation, its removal will not be easy.