For a few weeks most summers the fields at Pilton, a short drive from Wells, employ an army of temporary staff on contracts that end when the last tent comes down. The festival is the loudest example of a pattern that runs through the whole Wells economy: seasonal and casual work at the caves and the gorge, in the hotels and tea rooms, on the farms at harvest and at the showground, where the questions employment solicitors in Wells are asked concern holiday pay that was never paid, hours promised and withdrawn, and whether a worker was ever really self-employed.
The year-round employers are different. Care homes and home-care agencies, the cathedral and its school, Somerset Council, the shoe company and outlet village at Street and the Mendip quarries bring dismissal, disciplinary, sickness and discrimination cases, and the occasional whistleblowing claim from the care sector. Farm workers in England no longer have a wages board of their own, so their disputes over pay and tied housing come to the same solicitors as everyone else's.
Claims go to the employment tribunal in Bristol and are often heard by video, which spares the drive but not the preparation. Acas early conciliation must begin within three months less a day of the sacking or whatever else is complained of; for a seasonal worker whose job ended in September, that deadline arrives before Christmas.
Most Wells firms will look at a problem for free or a small fixed fee, charge a fixed fee for a settlement agreement, which the employer usually funds, and take a claim on an hourly or no-win, no-fee basis. Employers, farms and festival contractors included, can buy contracts and handbooks at fixed prices.
Employment solicitors within reach of Wells appear below, verified firms at the top. Read what employment law covers and the general employment law solicitors guide; employers should also see business law solicitors in Wells, and the Bath and Bristol employment pages cover the larger firms nearby.
