Employer taking me to court for no notice

embob74

I worked as a cleaner doing 10 hr night shifts lone working and called them to say it was too much for me and they said they would arrange cover for my other shifts and I left not giving the required one months notice as in my contract.
They withheld my last wage and was told it was because I had not given a letter of resignation nor returned my work t-shirt. I have since given them both along with a govt website printout detailing they cannot withhold my wages.
I have now received a letter stating they are taking me to court for the costs of having to cover my shifts.
I think it's a bluff and I have a lot of arguments to back up why I felt the need to leave at short notice but wondered what they can actually claim in costs? Any payment to cover my shift would have been made to me anyway so unless they paid over and above my hourly rate they are not actually out of pocket.
Can they claim for the pay for the shifts or only an amount over and above what they would have paid me?

SarEl

If they paid over and above your hourly rate they can sue you for the difference. Plus court costs. Your arguments about why you "had" to leave are not relevant - if this did go to court then the court would not be interested. I suspect it is a bluff, but nobody could tell you for certain that it is.

Hammyman

embob74 wrote: »

I have now received a letter stating they are taking me to court for the costs of having to cover my shifts.
I think it's a bluff and I have a lot of arguments to back up why I felt the need to leave at short notice but wondered what they can actually claim in costs?

They are legally entitled to claim for the full cost of temporary staff to cover you or the overtime they have to pay to another employee. They can also claim for any loss of business and in addition they can claim for their legal costs. In short, as your notice period is a month, this can rack up to a few thousand pounds real quick just for the cost of temp staff for 10hrs a night for a month before you even get to their legal expenses at £100's per hour.

People keep telling me I am talking out of my backside when I say companies can do this but as you have found, they can.

When you were looking at that govt website about withholding pages, the information that they can sue you for the costs arising from you not working your notice is usually on the same page or in the same section.

getmore4less

Don't they have to detail their losses and ask for payment before taking people to court.

maninthestreet

Were you paid on an hourly basis?

InsideInsurance

They are required to negotiate before taking you to court but that doesnt automatically mean giving you a breakdown of costs. If you ask for a breakdown of costs and evidence to support it and they refuse but still issue court proceedings then it is possible that they may win the case but they have to pay legal costs as the judge could consider the litigation unnecessary.

The courts are the place of last resort and whilst judgement on the case isnt impacted by following the correct procedure or not court and legal fees can be.

SarEl

Hammyman wrote: »

People keep telling me I am talking out of my backside when I say companies can do this but as you have found, they can.

Me too. Want to start a club?

Uncertain

Hammyman wrote: »

They are legally entitled to claim for the full cost of temporary staff to cover you or the overtime they have to pay to another employee. They can also claim for any loss of business and in addition they can claim for their legal costs. In short, as your notice period is a month, this can rack up to a few thousand pounds real quick just for the cost of temp staff for 10hrs a night for a month before you even get to their legal expenses at £100's per hour.

People keep telling me I am talking out of my backside when I say companies can do this but as you have found, they can.

When you were looking at that govt website about withholding pages, the information that they can sue you for the costs arising from you not working your notice is usually on the same page or in the same section.

No, what people (well me anyway) keep telling you is that you seem to delight in WILDLY overstating this at every opportunity.

You are right that they can seek to recoup their losses, which they have a legal duty to minimise as far as reasonably possible, after deducting what they have saved in wages and other employment costs during the unworked notice period. They would need to come up with some detailed evidence to back this up.

Although this can and does happen, it nearly always relates to high level positions. It would be very rare indeed for a case relating to a few hours per week of cleaning work to get to court.

Far more common, and what has most likely happened here, is for tit-for-tat threats to be made in this direction to try and get out of paying what is due to the employee.

I am not attempting to justify or encourage people to quit without notice unless there are truly exceptional circumstances. However, we live in a real world where it does sometimes happen. The point of this forum is to try and help people make the best (legally) of the position in which they find themselves. You would do well to remember that!

SarEl

Uncertain wrote: »

Although this can and does happen, it nearly always relates to high level positions. It would be very rare indeed for a case relating to a few hours per week of cleaning work to get to court.

Whilst I agree entirely that this is rare, and when I warn people of it I always say it is rare - I can tell you that you are far from correct in saying that it nearly always relates to high level positions. I come across such cases from time to time, and in fact they are far more commonly "ordinary employees". Someone in a high level position rarely terminates their contract early without mutual agreement, or a substantial (and often legal) reason - and is thus usually the first one issuing court proceedings!

embob74

Thank you for your replies.
I was only a part-time employee and they mentioned they would be claiming for 4 shifts which I was scheduled to work. However one of those shifts I did actually work!
The other 2 shifts were notified via the desk calendar and I had written them down in my diary. However shortly after I informed them I was pregnant the desk calendar disappeared and was replaced by a written calendar which only showed the shifts up to the middle of the month. Another hidden piece of paper showed that future months I was only allocated 2 shifts a month which is my contracted minimum. I have photocopies of this re-written calendar.
I feel I have lots of evidence to support a claim of constructive dismissal leading to my leaving without notice so am not unduly worried but I do wonder whether I should start a claim myself rather than just waiting to defend myself against the employers vexatious claims?

embob74

SarEl wrote: »

Whilst I agree entirely that this is rare, and when I warn people of it I always say it is rare - I can tell you that you are far from correct in saying that it nearly always relates to high level positions. I come across such cases from time to time, and in fact they are far more commonly "ordinary employees". Someone in a high level position rarely terminates their contract early without mutual agreement, or a substantial (and often legal) reason - and is thus usually the first one issuing court proceedings!

I'm hoping this is not the case for me but I do feel the employer would be taking me to court more for vexatious reasons rather than to retrieve their rather limited losses. I imagine a larger company has far better things to worry about than petty squabbles!