A TESTING QUESTION
Most SME owners are not employment lawyers. So how do they judge whether someone offering employment law advice genuinely understands the subject?
One practical way is to ask a few straightforward questions.
You don't need to know the answers yourself. But anyone holding themselves out as an employment law adviser should be able to answer them clearly, accurately and without hesitation.
None of these are obscure points of law. They are the sort of issues that arise repeatedly in everyday employment practice.
Is the Written Statement of Employment Particulars the same as an employment contract?
What is the difference between an employee and a worker in employment law?
I engage people on a self-employed basis. When might employment law still apply to them?
Why is a decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal more important legally than a decision of an Employment Tribunal?
If someone has clearly committed gross misconduct, is dismissal my only option?
Can an employee dismiss themselves?
In relation to preventing sexual harassment, do an employer's duties apply only to harassment between their own employees?
I want to dismiss an employee with seven years' continuous service. Their contract says they are entitled to four weeks' notice. Is four weeks all the notice (or pay in lieu) that I have to give them?
I have 25 employees working across three different sites. Will I soon have to allow a trade union to demand access to them?
I'm planning to buy another local restaurant. Once I've bought it, can I dismiss the existing staff and replace them with my own?
These are not trick questions. Nor are they technical curiosities.
They raise issues that competent employment law advisers encounter regularly. The value of a good adviser is not simply knowing the broad rule. It is recognising the legal issues hidden inside apparently straightforward questions and giving advice that remains reliable when the facts become more complicated.