Employment notice

[Purple Twin]

I work for a small local firm and have been employeed for 15 years with them. About 4 years ago our contracts were changed, I did not sign mine as the new contracts state 3 months notice is required. Can they hold me to this contract seeing as I never signed and returned it. My previous contract stated one month notice. I am not in a managerial position or anything.

[maviscoull]

unless i was in a managerial position, i wouldnt give anyone 3 months notice !!

[Richard1966]

This is actually quite complicate as a contract of employment forms a legally binding agreement between the employee and the employer. You DO NOT have to sign a contract for it to be valid simply working without objection can be deemed to be acceptance on the contract.

If however you do leave without giving the full notice the employer can only hold you liable for any loss that they actually incur. So for example if you left tomorrow and the employer had to get in agency staff they may have to pay the agency a bit more than they would have been paying you, therefore the extra cost to the employer is the �bit more�. Sorry if I am oversimplifying this too much.

To a large extent it depends on the type of job you do and how difficult it may be for the employer to re fill your position. If you have particular skills it may take longer and the 3 months notice may be justified.

Put your self in the employers position and consider how long you think it might take. What is reasonable in the industry you work in.

Give what you consider a reasonable amount of notice. Be fair.

You may however find that you have a fight on. Most employers reduce final wages and if this happens you may have to go to the county court or an employment tribunal to try to get a judge to decide if your breach of the agreed contract was justified or if the employer failed to mitigate their loss sufficiently.

Your local CAB can guide you further on this.

Good luck

[Purple Twin]

richard1966

What you have said makes sense and I do appreciate that both sides need to be considered but I do believe that 1 months notice would be fair.

I can always start to train up the office junior in some of my duties now and get them use to what I do, as if nothing else it would be good to have cover in case I ever needed to take a prolonged absence, also it means the company would have immediate cover if I did ever leave.

thanks for the comments though.