A packhouse outside Boston runs on agency labour and seasonal visas, pays by the hour for work that is really paid by the crate, and sheds half its workforce when the brassica season ends. Lincolnshire's food industry produces problems that an employment solicitor in Lincoln sees more often than one in Leeds: holiday pay never calculated on the real hours, deductions for transport and housing that push wages below the minimum, agency workers denied the terms of the staff beside them, and occasionally outright labour exploitation. Employers in the sector need a labour-provider licence, a sponsor licence for overseas workers and contracts that survive inspection.
The rest of the county's work is more conventional. The gas-turbine works in Lincoln and the engineering firms around it bring redundancy consultations and restrictive covenants; Lincoln County Hospital, the university and the county council bring whistleblowing and discrimination claims; the holiday parks and hotels of the coast bring seasonal contracts and tips. Service personnel at Waddington, Coningsby and Cranwell cannot bring most tribunal claims and must use the service complaints system first, while the civilians who work on the bases are ordinary employees with ordinary rights.
Claims from Lincolnshire go to the employment tribunal's Midlands East region in Nottingham and are heard there or by video, after Acas early conciliation, whose deadline of three months less one day the Employment Rights Act 2025 is lengthening, though nobody should rely on that. Settlement agreements need an independent adviser's signature, paid for by the employer.
Expect a free first call, fixed fees for settlement agreements and hourly or capped fees for a hearing, and check any union membership or legal expenses insurance first.
Lincoln's employment solicitors are listed below, verified firms first. Read what employment law covers and the general employment law solicitors page; employers can go to business law solicitors in Lincoln, and because hearings are held there, employment law solicitors in Nottingham are an option too.
