The following are some practical tips for businesses on how to avoid or deal with a legal dispute:
- Understand your obligations and rights under the law.
- Seek legal advice before you enter into any business agreement or sign any contract.
- Seek legal advice before you implement any new policies, procedures or systems that will
affect employees’ employment conditions or terms of employment (including new employment
contracts). - Keep records of all meetings, telephone calls and other communications with employees,
including those on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. When recording
meetings and telephone calls with employees use an appropriate method (such as a video
recording device) so that the employee is aware that their words are being recorded. - Follow up any oral or written warnings issued by management to an employee for poor
performance or misconduct with a formal letter setting out the reasons why the warning has
been issued and what improvement is required from the employee if they are to remain
employed by you in your business. Make sure that you have received acknowledgement from
the employee that they have received this letter and understand its contents before taking further
action against them (such as dismissal). - Make sure that you have an up-to-date employment contract in place with each of your
employees and that they understand what is expected of them in terms of performance and
conduct. - If you have received a complaint from an employee about another employee’s behaviour, it
is important that you investigate this thoroughly before taking any action against the employee
being complained about. - Consider whether it would be better to resolve issues with employees informally rather than
resorting immediately to disciplinary action.
