With 42% of marriages in the UK ending in divorce, should employers offer divorce surgeries as a benefit? Peter Jones, one of the UK’s top divorce lawyers, argues they should, if they take duty of care seriously.
“When looking at this from a commercial perspective, recall the myriad of studies, which highlight that employees with emotional issues are invariably less productive. Fatigued and distracted, their concentration levels plummet and they find it hard to manage,” he says.
“Businesses may want to consider investing in surgeries and enlisting the services of a qualified family lawyer who can talk through the options available. Admittedly, such surgeries, which can be conducted discreetly off-site to encourage staff to take advantage of the opportunity, do not feature in the traditional tick list of perks and benefits.
They could, however, make a world of difference to a distressed member of staff who does not know which way to turn, and who has no comprehension of how the financial assets they may have jointly accrued over years or decades will be divided up.
This year, the challenges for divorcing couples have been exacerbated with the imminent demise of legal aid on 1 April. This will preclude many couples from receiving free or subsidised access to affordable expert legal advice for family matters.”
