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?

28/08/07 15:33

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Work/Life balance

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?

01/11/05 15:11

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Endorsement and protection

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?

01/09/05 10:06

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Putting in the hours

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?

01/06/05 10:10

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Pensions act preparation

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?

01/02/05 14:19

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Hacked off with hackers

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?

01/05/04 12:07

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Fining staff

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?

01/05/04 11:57

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Redundancy issues

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?

01/04/04 16:12

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