Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

[Matty134]

Hi,

I have a question. I left my at the end of April 14, however I did not work my full 2 week notice. I only worked 1 week if I remember correctly then left on payday. This was due to exam fees during my employment which would be reclaimed, that I could not afford to pay. I did settle this within in 6 month of leaving however.

They dismissed me under gross misconduct, after telling them that I would not be returning, and failing to attend a disciplinary hearing at the office.

Surely this is a bit over the top? I had no disciplinary action against me during my 18 month employment at the business, and I was in the top 5% of the company for targets/revenue for my department. Is it allowable for them to effectively sack me on this basis?

Thanks

[Mr $quandaŁot]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Your post is difficult to follow and doesn't make any sense. For someone to be able to help you, could you please clarify the following:

Did you resign? You are talking about a two week notice period but then you say they told you that you weren't going to be returning.

What was the alleged gross misconduct relating to?

If you could explain the events chronologically that would be quite helpful.

In a nutshell, employees have very few rights during the first two years of employment and can be dismissed pretty much for whatever reason, excluding discrimination. However, employers are expected to follow a certain process when taking disciplinary action. You could have a case for sueing the employer for breach of contract.

Teaboy or someone else with knowledge of employment law should be able to advise you.

[Matty134]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. Apologies for the lack of detail, I am working at the moment and posted this quickly

To provide a more detailed rundown of the events I will bullet point them below. I will refer to my old employer as 'company A' and my new employer as 'company B'

• At the start of April 2014 I took a new role within company A, as a financial advisor.
• Before the end of April 2014 I was offered a lucrative role, in a different industry. (construction)
• I gave notice to my employer 2 weeks prior to the date I intended to leave. They were not happy about this, I had excelled in all exams & sales ect.
• I was notified by my employer that they would deduct Łxxxx.xx from my final pay, due to exams/training costs. I expected this due to being within 2 years of taking them.
• Based on this notion, while also consulting my colleagues, and company B I decided that I would leave on payday at the end of April 2015. This was down to assessing the loss as unaffordable at this time. (I have a small family)
• Following this company A sent me a letter that they did not accept my resignation, and that I should attend a disciplinary meeting.
• I did not attend this meeting, nor did I tell them I would not be attending. I was already working for my new employer by this time.
• Company A subsequently sent me a letter stating that I had been sacked for gross misconduct. Also asking for the money to be paid within a certain amount of days.
• I settled the balance with company A within 6 months.

I had no disciplinary action while working at company A whatsoever during my term of employment, which lasted around 18 months. I turned over one of the highest profit for them, and received pay rises twice in the short time as recognition for this. is that clearer for you guys?

Thanks in advance

Matt

- - - Updated - - -

Some points I missed!!!

My notice period was 2 weeks in my contract. I only worked 1 week of this if I remember correctly. I left the company and did not return to work for my final week of notice period.

[Mr $quandaŁot]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Ok, this makes more sense now.

In theory, the Company A could have sued you for breach of contract ie not working your full notice period.

When it comes to deducting training etc costs from your final pay, this would depend on your contract of employment with them. If that clause was included, then I would say they were within their rights to do so.

I'm not sure what you are looking to achieve re this matter? It's now well over a year ago and you have a new job anyway. My only concern would be if you need a reference from them in the future.

Someone who is experienced in employment law should be able to look if the Company A has broken any rules or not.

My gut feeling is that you didn't handle your resignation professionally, unfortunately.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. Apologies for the lack of detail, I am working at the moment and posted this quickly

To provide a more detailed rundown of the events I will bullet point them below. I will refer to my old employer as 'company A' and my new employer as 'company B'

• At the start of April 2014 I took a new role within company A, as a financial advisor.
• Before the end of April 2014 I was offered a lucrative role, in a different industry. (construction)
• I gave notice to my employer 2 weeks prior to the date I intended to leave. They were not happy about this, I had excelled in all exams & sales ect.
• I was notified by my employer that they would deduct Łxxxx.xx from my final pay, due to exams/training costs. I expected this due to being within 2 years of taking them.
• Based on this notion, while also consulting my colleagues, and company B I decided that I would leave on payday at the end of April 2015. This was down to assessing the loss as unaffordable at this time. (I have a small family)
• Following this company A sent me a letter that they did not accept my resignation, and that I should attend a disciplinary meeting.
• I did not attend this meeting, nor did I tell them I would not be attending. I was already working for my new employer by this time.
• Company A subsequently sent me a letter stating that I had been sacked for gross misconduct. Also asking for the money to be paid within a certain amount of days.
• I settled the balance with company A within 6 months.

Out of interest, what was the alleged gross misconduct they sacked you for?

It's not obvious what you are trying to achieve, you say you've got a new job so references are clearly not an issue and you also say you settled the money you owed them for training costs so they are not going to issue proceedings to recover it.

You worked for your previous employer for less than two years so you wouldn't have had a case for unfair dismissal and, even if you had a case, all this happened over a year ago and the deadline for most employment tribunal claims is just three months.

[nemesis45]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Out of interest, what was the alleged gross misconduct they sacked you for?

It's not obvious what you are trying to achieve, you say you've got a new job so references are clearly not an issue and you also say you settled the money you owed them for training costs so they are not going to issue proceedings to recover it.

You worked for your previous employer for less than two years so you wouldn't have had a case for unfair dismissal and, even if you had a case, all this happened over a year ago and the deadline for most employment tribunal claims is just three months.

Dismissed for not completing notice period and no attending disciplinary hearing and not informing employer of intention not to return after being paid.

[Mr $quandaŁot]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Dismissed for not completing notice period and no attending disciplinary hearing and not informing employer of intention not to return after being paid.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here!

[Amethyst]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

I believe, correct me if I am wrong, that nemesis was answering FP's question ''Out of interest, what was the alleged gross misconduct they sacked you for?''

[Mr $quandaŁot]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

I believe, correct me if I am wrong, that nemesis was answering FP's question ''Out of interest, what was the alleged gross misconduct they sacked you for?''

That does make sense.

Normally - I would have thought - the OP would have been notified on what grounds he was invited to attend the disciplinary meeting.

Quite often the process starts with an investigation meeting, followed by disciplinary hearing etc if necessary.

[jon1965]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Normally on any letter of dismissal it should give precise details of the reasons and those don't seem to have been posted anywhere

What does confuse me though is this
The OP left on payday to stop any money being reclaimed , now depending on how often and when they were paid this could have meant he was paid for time not worked in which case he certainly owed the company money or if payment was weekly the worst that would have happened is that he would have worked a week for nothing, as he has paid the money back it makes no sense to me

[teaboy2]

Re: Sacked for Not Working Full Notice Period?

Just to clarfiy a couple of points.

You said you started work for Company A in April 2014 - Then you were offered a job by Company B in the same month? - Atleast according to the bullet points you made. Then later in the bullet points you said you left company A in April 2015 - Did you mean 2015 or 2014?

If you started and left in April 2014 - Then when did you start the exam's the company paid for and when did you finish them?

Do you still have a copy of the contract terms about the training/exam fee repayments? If so, post them up!

Also can you give us precise dates as to start date and leaving date and the date you resigned, and where you paid weekly or monthly?

Lastly, as others have asked, what precisely are you wanting to achieve by bringing all this up now, if it was april 2014 you left and not april 2015?