By June the polytunnels around Marden and Leominster are full of pickers on seasonal worker visas, and by September some of them are in the offices of employment solicitors in Hereford. The questions are specific to the scheme: deductions for caravans and transport, hours that were promised and not provided, a transfer to another farm that was refused, and, occasionally, treatment that belongs with the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority rather than a tribunal. Growers and labour providers need advice of the same precision, because a licence lost in the spring ends the season.
The rest of the county's employment law is more settled. Bulmers and the poultry plant are the largest private employers in the city, with the formal procedures that come with size; Herefordshire Council, the county hospital and the schools produce whistleblowing, disability and grievance cases; the army at Credenhill employs civilians who have ordinary tribunal rights alongside soldiers who do not. Pubs, hotels and the tourist trade along the Wye supply holiday pay, tips and zero-hours disputes.
The border matters here too. A worker employed at a site in Hay-on-Wye or Monmouth brings a claim in the Wales region of the tribunal, with hearings in Cardiff or by video; a worker at Ross or Ledbury is in Midlands West, usually Birmingham or by video. In both the clock is the same: three months less one day from the dismissal or the discrimination to start Acas early conciliation. Settlement agreements need an independent adviser's signature and the employer usually pays towards it.
A free or fixed-fee first meeting, fixed fees for settlement agreements and hourly or staged fees for a claim are standard in Hereford.
Employment firms serving Hereford are listed below, verified ones first. See the general employment law solicitors guide and what employment law covers; employers can turn to business law solicitors in Hereford, and for firms in Leominster or Ross the Herefordshire search.
