MOST businesses and more than half of employers in the UK are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

As those running a business will know, whatever the size of your organisation, employees can be your greatest asset or your greatest liability.

For this reason, being up to date with the ever changing world of employment law is crucial to protecting your business from expensive and time consuming Employment Tribunal claims.

The dilemma for many smaller businesses is how to deal with man management issues when they need to get on with what they are best at – the business itself.

Over the last 20 years or so a raft of new employment legislation has come into the UK via Europe.

Our laws are complicated by the fact that they are also constantly being refined and changed with every decision coming out of the tribunals and courts – no wonder that negotiating employment law is a minefield for employers.

Discrimination laws are particularly complex. It is a long time since the first Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, and now all our discrimination laws have been amalgamated into the Equality Act 2010. Originally, smaller businesses were exempt from disability laws – that is no longer the case despite talk of that being re-introduced. So working out how to treat employees who complain of discrimination or ‘less favourable treatment’ at work can be a real headache for employers.

As advisers to many and varied employers across the South-West, our starting point of advice is to ensure your contracts of employment are in accordance with current law.

Even more basic is to ensure you have written contracts in place. Not all employers are aware that it is unlawful not to provide basic written terms of employment after two months of employment.

If that employee subsequently brings a successful unfair dismissal or other employment-related claim in the tribunal, the failure to provide the contract could cost the business an additional hefty ‘fine’. Unfair dismissal claims can today secure a maximum pay out of £74,200, a princely sum in itself, but discrimination claims remain uncapped. The record so far is in excess of £5million for a race-related employee claim. Getting the basics right has never been more important.

Until this year it has been all too easy and cheap for employees to bring claims against their employers. At last this year we are seeing the introduction of application fees for the first time and are certain this will have a positive effect on limiting spurious claims – and the ‘nothing to lose’ mentality of unscrupulous workers will hopefully fall away.

Finally, some good news for all businesses and SMEs in particular.

At CW we recognise the need for employer and particularly small businesses, who do not have endless resources to limit their HR spend. We offer a bespoke service providing tailored HR and employment law advice that you need, not what we want to sell you. As part of our employment team at CW we have an HR consultancy unit to assist businesses with a full range of HR issues, with experienced and specialist employment lawyers and advocates readily on hand as and when required. For more information please contact Kate.Gardner@clarkewillmott.com.