Getting Help With Employment Law From an Employers' Perspective

It would be a nice thing to believe that the outcome of an employment tribunal depended wholly upon whether or not the dismissal of an employee was the right and proper thing to do.

No reasonable employer would think the arbitrary dismissal of a long-serving and trusted worker was cause for celebration. When this happens, and when it is unjust, the reputation of all employers is tarnished.

Most reputable companies have written, established procedures through which disciplinary action can be taken against an employee who breaks the rules. Ordinarily these will recognise the fact that there are different levels of misconduct - minor, serious and gross - each calling for a different approach to be taken. To quote an obvious example, an employee who is a few minutes late on duty for the first time wouldn't expect to be penalised in the same way as another who had assaulted a colleague, or had been caught stealing.

Most of what we read on the topic of employment legislation and tribunals is given from the perspective of the wronged employee. Clearly it is right and proper that an employee who is indeed dismissed unfairly should have recourse to the law so that he or she might have the opportunity to rectify the injustice, or at the very least to be compensated in some way for it.

It is though sometimes the case that an employee may have been dismissed with justification, but in a fashion that does not entirely respect established procedures, and which therefore leaves the employer vulnerable to a successful challenge.

And that is the bottom line - employers are in need of advice too. It is so very easy to presume that an enterprise employing a hundred or even more people will automatically be versed in the finer points of employment law but that isn't always the case. There's no reason why a firm specialising in, say, the manufacture of aircraft parts or the production of pharmaceuticals should naturally be expert in industrial legislation and employment tribunals. Law is, of course, a completely different and separate discipline to that in which they specialise.

This is why employers, just like employees, need to have some access to the requisite legal information so that they can be sure they will be always operating within the spirit of the law, as well of course as within the letter of the law. Not only does the acquisition of solid legal advice enable one to establish a reputation as a good employer, but it also protects one from the threat of a challenge of a spurned ex-employee motivated by the desire to inflict some damage on the back of a legal technicality.

Whilst they are neither as abundant nor usually as vocal as those companies offering their services to complainants, there are many firms who do specialise in providing expert advice on employment law and human resources to employers. They are a very helpful ally and an asset to any company employing its own contracted staff.

Mark Richards is a professional writer working for The Middle Man, a business promotion service using its experience and expert knowledge of marketing strategy to generate important new business for its clients at a surprisingly low cost.