What we’ve been doing recently…

It continues to be a busy time for all sorts of support to our clients.  Themes have included quite a few questions about getting employees back to work and employees who are working from abroad at the moment.

Do you have employees working from abroad or asking to do so?

Whether your employee asks to work from abroad, or just goes ahead and does it (with or without telling you!), there are all sorts of legal risks and complications for UK employers here.  There is the risk of you being liable to pay the equivalent of PAYE to the foreign government. The risk of that country’s employment laws applying to the relationship.  The risk of that country’s H&S laws applying too.  The risk that the situation might be deemed as your organisation establishing a ‘branch office’ in that country, which then places several more onerous obligations on you.  And there is also the small matter of insurance – are you covered for your employees working semi-permanently abroad?  And what about laptops and other company property?

We’re really sorry to sound like the sort of lawyers who like to see the negative side of everything…! But there are a lot of risks here that need active managing, usually including getting advice from foreign advisers.  And because each country’s laws are different, even if you have experience of some of your staff working from (say) Spain, that won’t help you when it comes to others working in (say) France, Germany, Greece or Turkey.

Business Immigration advice

Talking of travel abroad, we’ve also seen a marked increase in requests for business immigration advice and support as employers grapple with new Home Office rules/processes.  If you need to employ a non-UK worker and are unsure how to do so, please get in touch.

Legal Training

April and May seem to have been the months for legal training!  We’ve been keeping Luke rather busy since Easter delivering training for our clients on Effective Performance Management, Anti-Bribery & Corruption and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.   In addition, he’s used his coaching experience to deliver well-received workshops on stress management to the CIPD’s members and to the Bristol legal community.

If you are looking for some HR/legal training, we’d love to discuss the options with you.  We have a number of ‘off the shelf’ modules but we create bespoke legal training events too.