An exhibition at ExCeL needs hundreds of staff for four days and none the week after. London City Airport runs on shifts that begin before the first flight. Much of Newham's employment is built that way, through agencies, zero-hours contracts and short fixed terms, and the questions that reach employment solicitors in Newham follow from it: whether someone is a worker or an employee, whether holiday pay has ever been calculated, and what rights an agency worker has after years on the same site.
The borough's larger employers bring the standard disputes. Newham University Hospital in Plaistow, the council, the universities and public bodies that have moved into Stratford, and the contractors still building at the Olympic Park and the Royal Docks generate redundancy, discrimination, whistleblowing and long-term sickness claims, and a TUPE transfer every time a cleaning, security or catering contract changes hands. Race and religious discrimination claims are a recognised strength of several local firms, in one of the most diverse boroughs in the country.
Claims from Newham workplaces are heard at the London East employment tribunal in Poplar. The time limit is strict: three months less one day, counted from the dismissal or the discriminatory act, with Acas early conciliation begun before it expires. Many of the borough's public-sector workers belong to a union that will provide a solicitor; for everyone else a first assessment is usually free, the employer pays towards advice on a settlement agreement, and strong claims may be taken on a no-win, no-fee basis. Employers use the same firms for contracts, handbooks, right-to-work checks and disciplinary procedures.
Employment firms serving Newham are listed below, verified firms first. For the basics see an introduction to employment law and the general employment law solicitors page; employers may find the business law solicitors in Newham page more useful, and employment law solicitors in Tower Hamlets covers the tribunal's own borough.
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