Dealing with employees' rights, unionised labour and pension
issues are some of the most controversial topics facing HEI
management and all require very careful handling.
employment
We have extensive experience of acting for HEIs and other public
bodies in relation to all aspects of employment, employment
relations, rights and benefits. This includes dealing with issues
such as:
- the use of fixed-term contracts following Ball v University of
Aberdeen
- the establishment of overseas campuses and its impact on the
employment arrangements entered into with staff
- advising on the handling of redundancy exercises, or threatened
strike action, to ensure that legal requirements are observed
- following the tightening of UK immigration laws, universities
who recruit from overseas must be alert to their legal
responsibilities
- working with HEIs to promote equality and diversity in
employment, education and training and the Equality Bill duty to
take steps to actively eradicate discrimination against staff and
students
- developing strategies to engage with unions to resolve
disputes.
pensions
For the time being, pension provision
in the higher education sector continues to buck the trend in that
it is normally provided on a final salary basis (whether through
the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS), Universities Superannuation
Scheme (USS), the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) or
self-administered trusts (SATS) set up by the relevant
institution).
We have experience advising on a wide range of schemes within
the higher education sector including the TPS and LGPS. We also act
for a number of universities (or their pension trustees) in
relation to self-administered trusts.
trade unions
The legal issues surrounding dealing
with a highly unionised workforce takes particular skill and
experience. Our team can provide that. In particular we have
specialist experience in developing strategies to engage with
unions to resolve disputes.
View examples of recent work we have done
for other higher education institutions.
