Q.
We recently sold a part of our business to a competitor. The contract stipulates we cannot poach any staff from them for two years. However, three of our old staff have now handed in their notice to their new employer. I have been contacted by these former employees who want to come back to work for my business. As they have left anyway and want to work for me, I would like to take them back. Will this create a legal problem? Do I have to compensate the other company? And if so, how much?
Q.
One of my regional sales managers returned from maternity leave two months ago but is struggling to balance her new life and has requested to go part-time. I’d love to be able to help her, but need someone who’s motivating the sales team and building client relationships fulltime – two voices wouldn’t work. How do I justify saying no without losing goodwill and where do I stand legally?
Q.
My two-year-old software business has developed a mobile technology offering picture and text-based translation services for English speakers abroad. I’m keen to raise finance and pitch to mobile operators, but feel I need greater endorsement and protection first. How would you advise going about this?
Q.
I’ve recently read that the EU Parliament has voted to phase out Britain’s opt-out of the Working Time Directive to prevent people from working more than 48 hours a week. If adopted, how will this affect my IT support business?
Q.
My company has a pension scheme; with the Pensions Act 2004 coming into force in April 2005 what are the main impacts and how can I prepare for it?
Q.
After returning from the Easter break I found, to my dismay, our company’s website had been ‘hacked’. I thought this was something that only happened in films and was not really much of a threat, but we had to spend nearly a week rectifying the problem, costing both time and money. What can we, and other businesses who probably don’t realise it’s such a potential danger, do to protect ourselves?
Q.
Over the past 12 months there have been a handful of my employees who are generally very good at their jobs, but who have been careless in a number of areas resulting in a financial loss for my company. It’s not a sackable offence, but I would like to ensure it doesn’t happen again. I was wondering whether I’m legally entitled to dock their wages when such mistakes occur?
Q.
An ex-employee has alleged racial discrimination over her redundancy. I’m convinced there has been none, but she is trying to take me to an Employment Tribunal over the issue. How can I deal with it or prevent it from happening again?
