Harrogate-based employment law firm, Boardside, is celebrating its sixth year anniversary with the arrival of a new partner.

Helen Trott has spent more than 25 years as an in-house lawyer covering financial services, healthcare and fintech businesses. She has worked at board level, including as general counsel, company secretary and chief operating officer.

In the firm’s newsletter, founding partner Richard Port said Ms Trott’s appointment added a new dimension to Boardside thanks to her experience in industries that are complex from a regulatory perspective. He said:

“We offer a bespoke advisory service to boards and those who sit on them and we have always prided ourselves on our grasp of clients’ commercial concerns, which has made us acutely aware and very interested to provide corporate governance, risk, compliance and some company secretarial services, too.

“Now, we have a new partner who has a strong commercial background and thereby broadens our capabilities in this regard.”

Software company appoints Harrogate comms firm

Marketing and communications agency, Big Bamboo, in Harrogate has been appointed by AI collision avoidance software company, Safety Shield Global, to support it with brand and PR activity.

The agency will support the company, whilst its sister agency, Big Bamboo Bids, will offer support in relation to bidding and winning work.

Safety Shield Global has developed an AI human form recognition safety system specifically for the construction industry .

The system can be fitted to any type of plant, for industries such as construction, rail, mining, demolition and waste, amongst others.

Nicola Stamford, founding director of The Big Bamboo Agency, said:

“We are thrilled to have been appointed by Safety Shield Global, which is a leading player in AI software.

“The company’s story is an impressive one, led by a very passionate CEO and wider team to ensure the safety of people who are working on sites, where plant machinery is prevalent.”

This story is sponsored by Truth Legal.

Whether it is for employment or family support, Truth Legal offers a range of support for Polish people in the Harrogate district.

Based and founded in Harrogate in 2012, the firm has been helping people with legal advice for more than 10 years and has prided itself on a “honest and ethical” ethos.

In that time, it has expanded by opening a branch in Leeds and, as a result, its client base.

But one of its unique services is how it focuses on communities which are hard to reach – one being Polish speaking clients.

In an effort to tackle this, it decided to employ Polish-speaking staff to help bridge the gap for Polish nationals and offer support to those who need to navigate UK law.

So Truth Legal hired two experienced legal professionals in family and employment law, Katarzyna Zatorski and Mirek Ksiezarek. For other types of law Truth Legal can put you in touch with an interpreter.

But it didn’t stop there. The company also set up a Polish website aimed at offering support for those who may need help navigating the UK law.

When asked why Polish nationals should choose Truth Legal for legal advice, Mirek said:

“We are a local, moral legal firm that understand the difficulties the Polish communities may face when having to navigate the English legal system and want to offer the best support available in the clients own language.”

The site and experience of having Polish legal staff also allows Truth Legal to offer cultural understanding, emotional support and clarity for clients.

Mirek added:

“We know it is important when you are facing a legal dilemma to talk through them in your own language. We are here to provide some comfort in a turbulent time.”

If you are a Polish national who needs legal support with personal injury, employment, family law or immigration claims, visit the Truth Legal Polish website. Alternatively, call Truth Legal on 01423 788538 or email enquiries@truthlegal.com.

A Harrogate-based employment law firm has expanded its offices to London.

Boardside in London is close to St Paul’s Cathedral and the Bank of England. The location will mean it is easily accessible for clients in the city.

The company now has branches in three different regions, with its headquarters in Harrogate.

The firm wrote in its newsletter:

“Almost five years after launching our niche employment law practice in Yorkshire, we are delighted to announce that we now have a presence in the capital.

“We believe that by having offices in the two biggest legal centres (Leeds and London) in the country, it will be easier for us to meet clients from across the UK.”

Boardside is run by owners Richard Port and Nadine Martson.

Support for Ripon businesses

Ripon’s Business Improvement District has appointed the Place Support Partnership to help firm in Ripon save on running costs.

PSP will visit BID businesses to support and advise them on reducing costs associated with utility and trading bills.

Lilla Bathurst, manager of the BID, said:

“The Place Support Partnership offers various services and acts as a savings scheme to support businesses.

“During the consultation process, businesses identified that they would like 10% of their levy to go on business support.”

Ripon BID says it has also worked to make businesses aware of the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant.

OHLG grants totally £141,342 were distributed to hospitality businesses in Ripon which were negatively affected by the pandemic.

Harrogate BID provided a business grant of up to £750 last month, for qualifying businesses to improve paintwork, signage and accessibility.

Read more:

• Bid to save ‘at risk’ Harrogate district bowls clubs
• Harrogate shop closes as sofa company enters administration

This article is written for the Stray Ferret by Harrogate employment lawyer Richard Port. Richard is Principal Solicitor and Founding Director at Boardside legal. In a series of articles, he explores the issues raised for employers and employees returning to work post furlough. This article is not legal advice – more a look at the complexities of the current situation. 

This week, he looks at where an employee stands if he is asked to return to his workplace, but does not want to do so.

My client, ABC Ltd is a food production business, meaning that as an essential service it has continued to operate in lockdown. Many, but not all, of its employees have continued to work, albeit paying due regard to health and safety measures in the workplace, in line with government guidelines.

‘Fred’ was one of a small number of employees who were furloughed in response to Covid-19, at least until ABC Ltd recently asked Fred, in particular, to return to the workplace. But he was not keen.

Employees may be reluctant to return to work for a variety of reasons, some of which may not be genuine, but many of which are likely to be so (often supported by various legal protections). Even if ABC Ltd believes that a reluctant returner is exaggerating his other concerns, it would still need to approach the problem with caution, dealing with those ‘concerns’ very carefully indeed.

As an adviser to ABC Ltd, I have had to discuss various scenarios with the client warning them about how easy it is to get things wrong and with it the very real risk of exposure to legal proceedings and the significant associated costs.

Like all employees, Fred has certain protections should he refuse to attend the workplace because of a reasonable fear of ‘serious and imminent danger’, a concept that will differ from one employee to another. For Fred, one major concern was the matter of travel to work on public transport, the risk of which he finds unacceptable.

Bearing in mind that the concept of ‘clinically vulnerable’ includes the over 70s and those with underlying health conditions, I also discussed with ABC Ltd Fred’s age and the fact he has no known health conditions. Fred is in his 60s, so does not trigger the age qualification for being clinically vulnerable, so potential age discrimination was not relevant.

It has been well documented that a number of employees have suffered with the consequences of Covid-19. My concern was that this could potentially be an issue for Fred, save that Fred’s own GP refuses to sign him off work.

Nonetheless, ABC Ltd should still listen to his concerns about returning to work, to understand how he is coping and what his real concerns about returning to his duties are. Remember, employers have an obligation to consider reasonable adjustments, including employees’ work patterns.

Finally, employees do have a right to request a reasonable amount of time off caring for dependants, albeit this would be unpaid. Fred’s wife does suffer from arthritis and I am aware that he does all of the shopping, for example. However, he has not raised this as an issue and in any event ABC Ltd has already offered him unpaid leave.

But of course, it is one thing thrashing this out with me, quite another to be discussing these types of matters with Fred directly. Effective communication is key to reducing the risk of employment related issues and even an adverse finding at an employment tribunal.

Next week, Richard looks at redundancies as businesses deal with the impact of the covid crisis.

Read more from Richard Port:

• Can you force an employee back to work?

Businesses preparing to return to work after the coronavirus lockdown could be doing so in completely different ways – and employment levels in the Harrogate district could take a hit.

Mike Patterson, head of employment law at Berwins, said many businesses may have found the enforced change actually suits them and they will keep some of the new ways of working even after lockdown ends.

However, he said there are still many tough weeks ahead for businesses, especially as the furlough scheme changes from August.

“Initially, we were dealing with lots of queries about furloughing. We’re now starting to get into post-lockdown, getting business back up and running. A lot of people were waiting for Boris’s roadmap to see the timetable to get people back to work.”

Mike Patterson of Berwins Solicitors

A series of announcements, changes and retractions in advice since the beginning of the crisis, have made it harder for lawyers, accountants and others to keep up with the latest situation in order to advise their clients, Mr Patterson said. The furlough regulations, for example, were produced in one large document and, when the scheme was tweaked, the document was updated but no information was published about what had been changed, leaving advisors to read it repeatedly to find the updates.

The way the announcements were made this week also gave some businesses and employees hardly any notice, from Sunday evening, that they could be expected back at work the following day. Mr Patterson added:

“I would have felt more comfortable if it was a consistent message with the rest of the UK. I like to think I’ve got a bit of common sense, but everybody’s different in what’s normal, what they think they should do.

“You’re saying tomorrow at 8am people who can’t work from home should go to work? You’re putting it back on the employee to take that decision as to whether it’s safe to go in? That’s pretty unfair in terms of lack of notice and lack of planning.”

Now, many businesses are looking at how they can resume more normal working in the coming weeks and months. The extension of the furlough scheme and the possibility of bringing staff back part-time while the economy gets moving again has been met with relief.

“Speaking to a few businesses and seeing what people are doing, that’s quite a welcome move. Businesses are nervous of this cliff edge the chancellor keeps speaking about. It’s not going to be back to normal over night, it’s going to take time. It helps to have flexibility and phased returns.”

Physical presence

The practical aspects of returning to work are at the top of business owners’ lists of priorities, he said. Enabling social distancing and other aspects of health and safety in workplaces all have to be considered, but businesses are also looking at whether returning to previous operations is even necessary or desirable.

“The traditional view of ‘we have got to be physically present,’, that’s potentially going to be something of the past. Their arm has been forced, given this: they have got to adapt and allow home working. It comes back to physical presence and it will impact on the space they need.”

For some businesses, there has been very little change to how they work. For others, whether changing the services they offer or allowing greater flexibility as parents juggle working hours with childcare, it has been a period of operating differently.

Mr Patterson said the return to work will have to have an element of flexibility too, for both employers and employees, as different sectors return to trading at different speeds.

In the long term, Mr Patterson said it is inevitable some businesses will be forced to make cuts:

“The furlough is a welcome safety net for businesses and employers. The reality is it’s maybe a bit of a honeymoon period that will have to come to an end and businesses will have to make difficult decisions.”