OWNERS of rural businesses looking to lay off staff because of the foot and mouth crisis should stop and think twice, a leading Yorkshire employment lawyer has warned.

David Bradley, head of the human resources group at DLA, one of Yorkshire's largest law firms, said: "The foot and mouth crisis is causing many businesses to consider laying off staff, i.e. temporarily suspending them from work, putting them on short time or even making them redundant.

"But before they do that, they should check the contracts of employment they have issued to their employees. It must be stated in their contracts that they can be laid off or put on short time. If they do not have the contractual right to do this then they should try to seek the employees' consent.

"In any event, employees who are laid off or put on short time have the right to receive a guaranteed payment of £16.70 per day or £83.50 for five days in any three-month period.

''This can be paid only for a certain duration after which time an employee can treat their employment as at an end and claim a redundancy payment."

Mr Bradley said he had seen business owners quoted as saying they would be keeping their staff on but not paying them while the foot and mouth crisis lasts.

"This is in clear breach of the National Minimum Wage Act requirements or the Agricultural Wages Act as well as a fundamental breach of contract which would enable them to bring proceedings for constructive unfair dismissal for which employment tribunals can award in excess of £50,000.

"Others have said the contracts are 'frustrated', that is over-ridden by events, but an employment tribunal is unlikely to accept this. The foot and mouth crisis will, in most cases, result in a classic case of redundancy rather than frustration."

He said that even making staff redundant was not as cut and dried as it might at first appear.

"Employers should stop to consider the costs of redundancy and bear in mind the costs of seeking to re-engage or recruit new staff when the all clear comes after the foot and mouth epidemic is over. The staff you want to re-engage may have found employment elsewhere and then you have the costs of advertising and finding new staff with the skills you want as well as interviewing replacements."

There were no easy answers in what was an anxious time for anyone involved in livestock farming or the rural tourist trade.

Mr Bradley concluded: "Business is hard enough for those affected, but they should be careful not to exacerbate the situation by taking hasty decisions on employment matters without giving the issues some careful thought - and taking legal advice especially where the contracts have no provision for lay off or short time working.''