Can a care worker in Catford on a zero-hours contract claim unfair dismissal? The honest answer from an employment solicitor in Lewisham is "it depends", and what it depends on is exactly what the worker usually does not know: whether they count as an employee, how long they have been there, and whether the agency or the care home was the employer. Social care, hospitality and cleaning are large employers in the borough, and the questions they generate, about holiday pay that was never paid, hours cut to nothing after a complaint and sick pay during an injury, are among the commonest reasons people in Lewisham ring a solicitor.
The other large employers are University Hospital Lewisham, the council, Goldsmiths and the Laban conservatoire at Deptford, which bring the public-sector cases: whistleblowing, disability and race discrimination, long-term sickness and restructuring. The commuters who fill the trains from Brockley and Hither Green to London Bridge and Canary Wharf come home with redundancy consultations and settlement agreements from employers in the City, and Lewisham firms sign those agreements off daily, with the employer meeting the cost of the advice. Freelancers from the New Cross and Deptford creative scene bring status disputes and unpaid invoices that sit between employment and contract law.
A claim must be preceded by Acas early conciliation, begun within three months less one day of the dismissal or the act complained of, and is then heard at the London South employment tribunal in Croydon, increasingly by video. Employers in the borough use the same firms for contracts, policies, disciplinary processes and TUPE.
First conversations are commonly free; settlement agreements are fixed-fee; contested claims are hourly or staged, with no-win, no-fee for stronger cases.
Employment firms serving Lewisham are listed below, verified first, then by distance. See the general guide to employment law solicitors, the explainer on what employment law covers and the London employment page; employers should also look at business law solicitors in Lewisham.
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