Since April 2024 every employee has been able to ask for flexible working from the first day of a job, and employers have had to consult before refusing and to answer within two months. For a borough of commuters that change has had more effect than any tribunal judgment. Employment solicitors in Bromley field a steady run of questions from staff in Petts Wood, Orpington and Beckenham whose employers in central London want them back at their desks most of the week, and from employers trying to work out when a refusal is lawful. A refusal on one of the permitted business grounds is usually safe; one that falls hardest on parents, carers or disabled staff may be discrimination.
The borough's working life is split between the trains to Victoria and London Bridge and a local economy of hospital, council, retail and small business. The Princess Royal University Hospital at Farnborough brings sickness-absence, disability and whistleblowing cases that go through NHS procedures first; The Glades and the high streets bring retail dismissals and unpaid holiday pay; the aviation and engineering firms at Biggin Hill and the Cray Valley industrial estates bring redundancy rounds, restrictive covenants and the occasional TUPE transfer. Commuters arrive with settlement agreements, which need an independent adviser's signature that the employer normally pays for.
The timetable is strict: Acas early conciliation must begin within three months less one day of the dismissal or the act complained of, and the claim then goes to the London South employment tribunal in Croydon, a tram ride from Beckenham.
A first conversation is usually free, settlement agreement advice fixed-fee, and a contested claim hourly or in stages; legal expenses cover on a home insurance policy often pays.
The employment firms below serve Bromley, verified ones first and the rest by distance. Read what employment law covers and the general employment law solicitors page; employers may prefer business law solicitors in Bromley, and the London employment page covers the capital.
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