Employer ignores notice period

blastamasta

Hi all,

First of all thank to all who will read this rather long post. I appreciated this! Post itself is long because I wanted to explain exactly what happened to make sure that advise you may give is based on all information.

I would like to ask all of you if there is anything I (and my wife) can do based on what I explain below. I am asking this in behalf of my wife and below situation is what happened to her.

Namely my wife started new job 5th of December. After 3 weeks her previous employer contacted her with information that they are looking for someone. My wife went to interview just after new year and she got it. I know this may not be very fair to first employer but this is life. Money, benefits and responsibilities where much better so this was really no brainier. My wife did not feel good with this but at the end of the day she could not do too much. She did not hurt anyone and it was all business.

Anyway she resigned 20th of January. As per her contract she had 1 month notice period but she wanted to finish early on 31st. Reason for this was simple as she wanted to start new job on 6th. She did not need to do any hand over so I think this was something what employer should accept. Unfortunately they did not accept this and they said that she is obliged to work full month as per her contract i.e. till 10th of February. At this stage I was suspecting that this action is to punish my wife but my wife just wanted to close this in good way as she feel guilty of this situation. She agreed to this, informed new employer that she can only start on 13th and she prepared herself to work another month in old company.

During first week it was clear that there is not too much work for my wife (she was told before that they need her for whole month as “it is busy”) She even was asking people around her if she can help and sometimes she got some copy/paste exercise. This was not perfect situation but it was not her problem that they cannot find anything to do for her.
Last week however on Friday she was asked to finish on 31st as they don’t have anything for her and this was when hell break loose. My wife did not accepted this and she said as per contract and as per agreement was for her to stay till 10th of February. She said that she will go to court if needed. When she said this she was told that because she work in this company shorter than 13 weeks then it is 2 weeks’ notice period.
From there conversation was not really pleasant. She was accused of not wanted this job at all and she took this only to look for something else which in was not true. I also find this not very professional. They should not say this whatever they think. Then her manager said that she can finish even today (she was paid till 31th already) and from this point on she was treated like someone who has been fired under disciplinary action. There was person looking at her when she packed her stuff and he make sure she is not left unattended on company premises.

So my wife came back home crying as she really wanted to close this episode in good way without fighting with anyone but instead she was punished by them only because she decided to take better job and treated like Cra*.
She is still not back to normal and I can tell she thinks about this all the time! Then because of this we will lose 2 week of her salary only because someone decided to keep her for whole month most likely just to punish here and then change his mind which means break the contract. So it was really bad for my wife from mental point of view and then we also lost money where both of those could be avoided.

So now the questions. I think what is in the contract is what should be followed. She was told that she is obliged to stay one month as per agreement in contract and they don’t have right to terminate contract before notice period? If they don't want her that is ok but she should be paid till 10th either way.
Is that correct?

If above is correct what would be our next steps? What I am looking is to have my wife paid till 10th of February. Of course I don’t want my wife to comeback there.
What should I do? Hire lawyer and let him follow on this or I can do something by myself? What options I have?

That is really it. I hope I did not bored you but it was rather crap weekend for us. Some people don’t care about this but unfortunately we are not one of them.

Thanks in advance for all replies.

Regards,
B

punisher5112

Nothing she can do she wasn't there long enough and out of probation period so they can do what they did no issues.

Quite possible they played her along a bit but she has sort of left them high and dry after such a short period and now stumped them with extra costs to find a replacement.

She needs to forget about it and move on.vif new job has better pay and conditions she should be over the moon she got it.

drunkmonkey

Tell her forget about it, call the Job she was meant to start on the 6th they still might take her. If not just move on and enjoy the 2 weeks off.

Your best keep out of it don't dream about going near her employer or doing anything on her behalf.

_Brian

Move on. Life's too short.

the_syco

Two things. Firstly, she wanted off on the 31st, she got off on the 31st.

blastamasta wrote: »

Anyway she resigned 20th of January. As per her contract she had 1 month notice period but she wanted to finish early on 31st.

blastamasta wrote: »

Last week however on Friday she was asked to finish on 31st as they don’t have anything for her and this was when hell break loose.

blastamasta wrote: »

So my wife came back home crying as she really wanted to close this episode in good way without fighting with anyone but instead she was punished by them only because she decided to take better job and treated like Cra*.

Secondly, she wanted off on the 31st, and I'd say her employer thought that she was treating them like crap by only giving just over a weeks notice.

IMO, they got her to hang around until they could get someone else onboard, and once they did, are cutting your wife loose so that the new person can start.

blastamasta

Thanks guys for answers.

Let me also quickly respond to one of you.

@the_syco
I don’t think she treated them like cra* at any stage of this situation. Sorry but I think most of people would take better job any day does not matter if you work for previous employer month or 5 years. Those things happen and she did what was best for her. For them I agree additional work to find someone new again but come on what she supposed to do? Say no to better job only to not make her current employer angry?! If they really think that then I am glad she is left this rat place.
Some people would not care at all and just left next day without any notice. She did not do that as she wanted to be fair.

They did not get any new person yet. They even not started interviews! IMO it is just crap company with low working standards.


Anyway based on what you guys said nothing can be done here.

Many thanks for the answers.

blastamasta

One more thing I noticed. I made small typo.
My wife gave her notice on 13th not 20th like I stated. It does not change anything but just to be clear.

punisher5112

Move on forget it she needs to think of new job and should be happy.

Don't be looking into whether they replaced or not and anything else.

Nobody is saying don't move upwards and onwards there is just better ways in some cases of doing so.

If she was in the job say 12 months or more then she would be obliged to give better notice but even in those cases what happened can happen or both sides can come to an agreement.

Look its life the business actually doesn't sound bad and maybe she could have tried her luck to see if they wanted to keep her with a similar offer or match.

Move on forget it its old news.

the_syco

blastamasta wrote: »

@the_syco
I don’t think she treated them like cra* at any stage of this situation. Sorry but I think most of people would take better job any day does not matter if you work for previous employer month or 5 years. Those things happen and she did what was best for her.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that she should do what is good for her, but going back to her old job after two months may look like she was using the new company to get a better wage with the old company (people often use interviews from company B to force a pay rise in company A).

At this stage, there's nothing that you or her can do about the new company. Move on, and start in the old place. Heck, maybe contact the old company and your wife could say she could start earlier. I don't think the old company would mind this.

Senna

Firstly, leaving a company 2 months after starting is bad form, yes do what's right for her, but don't give out about the company she is screwing over.
If your wife wanted to leave things on good terms, why did she refuse to leave on the 31st when asked, she is out 2 weeks wages, but how's fault is that, the company wanted your wife to work for them long term, your wife is the one that choose to leave.

I think you have a very miss guided view of employment, I don't know the industry your wife works in but an employee leaving after 2 months would cost my company €30-35k in new start expenses.

It's done now, forget about it and move on.