A distribution centre on the Normanton industrial estate changes contractor, and two hundred pickers and drivers learn from a notice on the canteen wall that they will be working for a company they have never heard of from Monday. Whether their terms, their service and their jobs are protected depends on the TUPE regulations, and on whether anyone consulted them. Logistics is one of the biggest employers in the Wakefield district now, and the questions it generates, about transfers, agency status, holiday pay, shift premiums and dismissals for alleged misconduct caught on warehouse cameras, fill much of a local employment solicitor's week.
The public sector is the other half. Pinderfields Hospital and the Mid Yorkshire trust, the council, West Yorkshire Police and the two prisons employ thousands of people in Wakefield under detailed procedures, and claims from them tend to be about sickness absence, disability discrimination, whistleblowing and ill-health retirement rather than unpaid wages. Prison officers and police staff often come with a union behind them; a solicitor will check whether the union, or legal expenses cover on a home policy, will fund the case before anyone pays privately.
Tribunal claims from Wakefield are heard at the Leeds employment tribunal, a short train journey from Westgate. The deadline is unforgiving: Acas early conciliation must begin within three months less one day of the dismissal or the act complained of.
Settlement agreements are common when the big employers restructure, and the employer pays towards the independent advice. For employers, Wakefield solicitors draft contracts and policies, run redundancy consultations that comply with the collective rules, and defend claims, often for a fixed annual fee aimed at the district's haulage firms, manufacturers and care providers.
Employment solicitors in Wakefield and the five towns are listed below this guide, verified firms first. See what employment law covers, employment contract costs, the general employment law solicitors page and employment solicitors in Leeds.
