Irwin Mitchell Provides Software Developer With Free Legal Advice

National law firm Irwin Mitchell is supporting a new digital initiative which will help workers who have been laid off and furloughed as a result of coronavirus to be quickly rehired when circumstances improve.

The Rehire Project lets organisations support their workers by communicating with them via the platform - offering advice and status updates to keep them informed on company progress and rehiring prospects.

The service is free for smaller businesses, charities and the public sector. Larger organisations pay a nominal fee to help support the service with profits from this initiative during the current crisis being donated to the NHS Charities COVID-19 Urgent Appeal and the World Health Organisation.

Talon, a workforce management software company, produced the new app and over the past two weeks has diverted resources from commercial projects and worked round the clock to create the new platform.

Law firm Irwin Mitchell has been working with Talon and has provided free legal advice to help get the project off the ground.

Aurelia Butler-Ball, a senior associate in Irwin Mitchell’s Commercial team, worked alongside solicitor Grace McNulty-Brown on the project.

Expert Opinion

“This is a very worrying and uncertain time for everyone and we wanted to help and support Talon with this launch. Many workers will feel cut adrift with no contact or idea of what is going on with their former employers and we hope this will help improve and speed up the rehire process when work picks up.” Aurelia Butler-Ball - Partner

Talon CEO, Jonny Dunning, said: “Like everyone else, we were shocked by the devastation from COVID-19 and wanted to play our part in fighting back. The inspiration for The Rehire Project came when a close friend was forced to lay off fifty workers, and was heartbroken – particularly as he knew he’d struggle to get his great workers back after the crisis. We wanted to help prevent that happening and support workers in getting their jobs back with as many organisations as we could. This is obviously an intensely worrying time for people in regards to the very real health risk, but the personal and economic threat this crisis poses to companies and workers alike is something that is also affecting almost everyone in some way at the moment.

"We're hugely appreciative of the support from the team at Irwin Mitchell on this initiative, it was very important to us to make sure that the system is robust, secure and compliant with data privacy laws including the GDPR. Thanks to the quick work from Irwin Mitchell on this, workers and clients can use it with confidence.

“My plea to companies is this, if you've had to let someone go, furlough them or put their role on pause, stay in touch! It doesn't matter whether they are an employee, freelancer, contractor, temp or even a volunteer, keep them up to date, do your best to look after them and hopefully you'll be able to hire them back when things return to normal,” added Dunning.