A care worker in Bilston is paid for her visits but not for the hours she spends driving between them; a line worker at i54 is told his shifts are changing and his contract allows it; an office manager at a Wednesfield firm is handed a settlement agreement and asked to sign by Friday. Each has a question for an employment law solicitor in Wolverhampton, and each answer turns on detail: whether travel time counts for the minimum wage, whether a flexibility clause was used reasonably, and whether the settlement is worth what is being offered.
Wolverhampton's workforce is still unusually industrial for an English city. The Jaguar Land Rover engine plant and its neighbours at i54, the aerospace works, the brewery, the warehouses along the M54 and the engineering firms of Bilston and Wednesfield bring redundancy, TUPE and health and safety dismissals; New Cross Hospital, the council and the university bring whistleblowing, grievances and long-term sickness disputes; and the city's care homes, shops and takeaways produce the unpaid wages and holiday pay claims that keep tribunals busy.
Those claims are not heard in Wolverhampton. Cases go to the Birmingham employment tribunal, though many preliminary hearings are now conducted by video. The time limit applies wherever the hearing is: the Acas early conciliation form has to go in within three months less one day, counted from the dismissal or the act being complained about, so the first call to a solicitor should come early.
Employers in the Black Country use the same firms to write contracts and handbooks, handle disciplinaries and redundancies properly and defend claims, often on a fixed annual retainer. For employees, settlement agreement advice is usually funded by the employer, and no-win, no-fee arrangements and legal expenses insurance cover many claims.
Employment firms serving Wolverhampton are listed below, verified firms first, the others ranked by how far they are from the city centre. Our guide to employment law solicitors explains the service, what employment law covers and the cost of an employment contract give the background, and employment solicitors in Birmingham covers the city where the tribunal sits.
