Contracts and Notice - Help needed!!

[ruby15]

Hi, could some one give me some advice please. My daughter has been offered a new job and the starting date is the 9th Feb which my daughter has accepted, but upon checking her contract for her present job, as she has been there for 6 months she needs to give 4 weeks notice, she has called HR who say that if her manager is willing to let her go early then thats fine. Now, her manager is being funny with her and will not discuss it, just dismissing it in and saying she has not got time to look at the rota (my daughter gave in her notice on Friday and has worked all weekend with her manager) my daughter has 5 days holiday left, so by my way of thinking she has two weeks notice plus one week of holiday so we are only looking at one week or does it not work like that? She should have let her new employer know today that she can definatley start on the 9th Feb.....

[Guest]

Re: Contracts and Notice - Help needed!!

Your daughter can leave whenever she likes - it's not like they can sack her is it? This is employment, not slavery and is therefore voluntary.

However, if she leaves before her notice is up, she should not expect to get paid for the part of her notice that she did not serve. If on the other hand, her employer asks her to leave early, they would have to pay her for the full notice period, so an agreement from her manager would be the best solution.

Regarding any holiday, it may be that the company would prefer to pay her in lieu, rather than allow her to include that in any notice period. This is something that her employment contract should detail.

In reality, there is little an employer can do. Employers are not entitled as a matter of law to force employees to work, even though your daughter would be in breach of contract. In certain circumstances, they may be able to obtain an injunction to stop her working for her new company during the notice period, but it would have to be shown that the new employer is a direct competitor and that there was a legitimate need to protect their interests- not an easy task. They would also have the right to sue your daughter for the additional costs arising from her breach of contract, for example, for the cost of replacement staff for the balance of the notice period. Given that we are talking about a week, it is highly unlikely that this is going to happen.

She should confirm that she can start on 9th February and she should do so, but she should be prepared for the fact that she may lose the money she would have earned for the week's notice she did not serve by not being there.