Early contract severed - can they do this?

needaspirin

Magyar - Figment I'm afraid


Statutory minimum notice

All employees who are not excluded will be entitled to a statutory minimum period of notice. This minimum period of notice is:-

*
one week for people who have worked for their employer for one month but less than two years; or
*
two weeks if the employee has worked for her/his employer for two whole years; and
*
one additional week for each further whole year's employment at the date the notice period expires, up to a maximum of twelve weeks' notice in total.


Early termination of a fixed term contract

If the contract has an expiry date and contains a clause which means that it can be terminated before the expiry date, then the usual rules about notice apply to any early termination of the contract. If it is a task contract, and so has no expiry date, then from 1 October 2002, where a task contract which is expected to last for three months or less is ended early, the employee is entitled to one week's notice, provided s/he has worked for her/his employer for one month.

If there is no term in the contract which allows for the contract to be terminated early, and the employer terminates the contract early without the agreement of the employee, or vice versa, then the contract has been breached.

If the employer terminates the contract early without the agreement of the employee, and where there is no term in the contract which allows for early termination, the employer becomes liable to pay the employee all the wages which the employee was due under the remainder of the contract. However, the employer may be able to dismiss the employee without notice if the employee is guilty of gross misconduct, in which case the employee would not be entitled to wages for the remainder of the contract unless the contract specified wages were payable in these circumstances.

If the employer has ended the contract early in a case where there is no gross misconduct, where the contract does not allow for early termination and there has been no agreement between the employer and employee to end the contract early, the employee may wish to make a claim for breach of contract in order to be paid her/his wages for the remainder of the contract. S/he will need to show s/he has tried to 'mitigate her/his loss' by trying to find another job.

magyar

needaspirin wrote:

Magyar - Figment I'm afraid

A not uncommon occurrence

It looks from the above as if there is a reasonable case for claiming an additional week's pay. Whether you felt it was worth it is doubtful, although I would imagine it's worth a letter.

kelloggs36

I have asked her to check her contract. She is pretty sure that there was nothing in it about being able to terminate the contract early. Perhaps when she digs it out, I may be able to state what it says. So, in the event that the contract does not state that they reserve the right to terminate early, it is worth her writing a letter to them advising that they are in breach and are liable to pay her in lieu if they insist that she leaves. She has certainly not been let go because of any misconduct - every single temp worker have also lost their jobs.

needaspirin

If the contract does not allow for early termination:

Yes she should write and start a grievance with them. She can take her contract into CAB to be looked over and get advice on this and on Employment Tribunal (ET) action.
Although she would not normally be protected from unfair dismissal and would not be able to use an ET, she can in the case of breach of contract. However she needs to raise the grievance first.

kelloggs36

I shall tell her! I will let you know if she gets anywhere.