ABSTRACT
Large organizations retain expensive lawyers simply as a safety net to catch them when their systems and attitudes to people fail. Smaller organizations frequently expect to lose if an employee claims that he or she was unfairly dismissed – the employer knows that their systems are inadequate, even if they believe that they have behaved fairly. Employees have duties, too, enforced by laws such as the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Food Safety Act. They have contractual obligations under their Contract of Employment with their employer – assuming of course that they have one. An increasing amount of legislation and case law affects how employers and employees must behave towards each other. The vast majority of organizations are in the small to medium enterprise sector. Employment law is so complex that no one could reasonably expect an employer to be an expert in every aspect of it.
