February 2012
Putting lawyers in touch with the youth of Oldham
Pearson Hinchliffe partner, Michael Pitt, takes over as 2012 Oldham Law Association President.
MoreContingency planning and disaster recovery
12th January 2009
Flooding, fire or flu pandemic are just some of the emergencies that could cause major disruption your business.
Imagine being faced with half your employees absent through illness, your premises inaccessible because of a terrorist threat, or total telecommunication failure resulting from a strike.
Surprisingly, Britain has no specific law requiring employers to have business-continuity plans. But there are plenty of regulations that would come into play should an emergency arise.
First, you have a general duty to provide a safe place and system of work for your employees. This means that you must take reasonable steps to make sure your employees are protected from reasonably foreseeable dangers. Having proper emergency procedures, training and communication systems are all part of this.
Secondly, you must provide appropriate support to workers caught up in the emergency. This could mean, for example, offering employees suffering stress, depression or other psychological disorders reasonable time off, or perhaps a phased return to work. In the most severe cases, it could even mean offering professional counselling.
A recent Chartered Management Institute survey showed that fewer than half of UK businesses have a specific business-continuity plan in place. While firms are not breaking the law by not having one, organisations that plan for emergencies tend to suffer less severely from the initial impact and recover more quickly from the subsequent disruption.
I therefore advise you to carry out a risk assessment. Identify your key tasks and the employees you need to carry them out.
Consider which alternative premises you could easily move into, or examine how home working might help you to get over the initial effects.
Plan how you would communicate with your employees and customers, and get back as quickly as possible to business as usual.
Constantly review and update your plans to take account of changes in the company, industry or wider world.
For further information or advice, please click here to contact a specialist business lawyer.
Notes to Editors
Pearson Hinchliffe Commercial Law is a commercial law practice providing a range of legal services to business and commercial clients in Manchester, Oldham and across the North West. The firm's specialities include Company & Commercial, Employment Law, Commercial Litigation and Commercial Property matters.
As one of the leading law firms in the North of England, Pearson Hinchliffe’s mission is to be ‘the complete law firm’ providing the highest quality legal services to its clients. It does this by offering practical and cost effective, high quality legal advice for a wide range of clients. Each client is catered for as an individual with their business and personal requirements taken into account which allows for a highly personalised service.
For more information on this article or Pearson Hinchliffe Commercial Law, please contact a member of the marketing communications team on +44 (0)161 785 3500 or email muhammed.shaikh@pearson-hinchliffe.co.uk
January 2012
Company and commercial law reforms to reduce red tape
Companies of all shapes and sizes have been asked for their views on how to tackle unnecessary bureaucracy in company and commercial law.
MoreJanuary 2012
Increase in unfair dismissal qualifying period will apply only to new employees
From 6 April 2012 the qualifying period of service for making a claim increases from one to two years.
MoreJanuary 2012
Maximum compensation for unfair dismissal increases from 1 February 2012
Annual revision of employment tribunal award limits and other amounts payable under employment legislation.
MoreDecember 2011
Health and safety laws to be cut by half
Government plans to slash health and safety red tape will mean substantial savings for small firms, business groups have said.
MoreNovember 2011
Weight Watchers case: the importance to employers of employment status.
The Upper Tier Tribunal holds 1,700 ‘leaders’ at Weight Watchers were employees for tax purposes.
MoreSeptember 2011
How to Conduct a Disciplinary Hearing
A recent presentation by Employment solicitor, Susan Mayall, setting out the stages for handling a disciplinary, referencing the ACAS Code of Conduct.
June 2011
ACAS Advice leaflet “Holidays and Holiday Pay”
Download the guidance covering arrangements for holidays and holiday pay.
October 2010
Recent Case Study: Commercial Landlord and Tenant - An Authorised Guarantee Agreement
Authorised Guarantee Agreements keep the original tenant on the hook in case a third party assignee defaults; they should be drafted with care.
July 2010
Recent Case Study: Doing Battle in the Boardroom
How Pearson Hinchliffe Commercial Law helped members of the Board of Directors achieve the outcome they sought in their boardroom dispute with a senior executive director.
May 2010
How the Mergers & Acquisitions team helped Lanes Group PLC achieve their LAS sell-off
Drainage specialists dispose £12.3 million majority stake in Lanes Assistance Services.
March 2010
PH Employment Direct
The Employment team at Pearson Hinchliffe Commercial Law have created PH Employment Direct - a user-friendly and simple service that gives you access to the best advice at the end of a phone 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
February 2010
Oldham Construction Sector
On 3 February 2010 Corporate Commercial partner Roger Hinchliffe delivered a presentation entitled, ‘Joint Ventures’ to the Oldham Construction Sector group.
January 2010
Debt Recovery Service
With our specialist commercial Debt Recovery service you can significantly increase the speed and likelihood of recovering the money owed to your business.