On a match day at Twickenham several thousand people are at work who were not employed there the week before: stewards, bar staff, hospitality servers, car-park marshals and cleaners, most of them casual, many of them students from St Mary's up the road. The rugby brings employment solicitors in Richmond upon Thames a steady trickle of questions about agency contracts, holiday pay, late payment and dismissals by text message.
The borough's permanent employers are unusual for outer London. The National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, Kew Gardens and the National Archives employ scientists, curators and archivists on public-sector terms, with the grievance procedures, fixed-term contracts and redundancy consultations that go with them. St Mary's University, the council, the film studios at St Margarets, Richmond's theatres, and the shops and restaurants of Richmond, Twickenham and Teddington complete the local picture. The larger group, though, is the residents who work in central London: senior people in banking, law, media and consultancy whose problems arrive as restructures, bonus disputes, restrictive covenants, maternity discrimination and settlement agreements that need advice before Friday.
Claims from Richmond workplaces are heard by the London employment tribunals, usually London South in Croydon. Acas early conciliation has a hard deadline of three months less one day from the dismissal or other act, and neither a notice period nor an internal appeal extends it. Settlement agreements bind only after independent advice, and the employer usually pays a contribution towards it.
A first discussion is often free or fixed-price; settlement agreements and contract reviews are fixed-fee at most firms, and contested claims are charged by stage, sometimes under legal expenses insurance.
Employment solicitors near Richmond upon Thames are listed below, verified firms first. See the general employment law solicitors page and the article on what employment law covers; employers can start with business law solicitors in Richmond upon Thames, and employment law solicitors in Croydon lists firms near the tribunal.
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