Handed in notice but the new job may be withdrawn

StaffieTerrier

Hi all,

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend, so please bear with me.

Friend was offered a new job a few weeks ago. The new company sat on the contract so there was delay in him signing the new contract and handing in his notice with his old job. The new company are now putting pressure on him to start (even though they were the cause of the delay), while his old company are making him work every last second of his notice period.

The new company are now threatening to withdraw the job because he can't start immediately. We understand they are able to do this but does he have any rights if both contracts are ended?

He's due to finish his old job on the 13th November and is owed 2.5 days holiday and he's looking into asking to take 2.5 days unpaid leave (unlikely to be accepted). This would enable to him to start the new job earlier. (His been with the old company less than twelve months but worked his probation of three months.)

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you

CapJ

What sector is this? What is his role?

What does his contract say in respect of the amount of notice required?

Realistically no-one wants to be employing someone who really doesn't want to be there. He needs to negotiate hard with existing employers the leaving date. He can promise to work really hard before then and document his role well etc If employers aren't willing then well he can either stick with it or walk out (and risk being sued for damages).

SarEl

I wouldn't recommend this action, but if both employers are totally unwilling to negotiate and the offer is unconditional (which it sounds like it now is, but be sure) and you are relatively sure that the employer could not sue for quantifiable losses if you do not work your notice, then rather than lose out on the new job I would simply say that I am leaving on such an such a date and like it or lump it.

Bear in mind that there are risks to this strategy, but given that you have now resigned from the first job and so you cannot rescind that, and could end up with no job, it may be the only option. But I would recommend exhausting any negotiated settlement of the problem before doing this - minimal though the risks are, they are real.

scheming_gypsy

Even if they do sue they'll have a better chance of paying any losses with a job, rather than working their notice and not having any job at the end of it.

lizzywig

This seems silly of the new employers, if they were to decline him the job they'd then have to offer it to someone else and wait for them to complete their notice period....

Comstock

CapJ wrote: »

Realistically no-one wants to be employing someone who really doesn't want to be there. He needs to negotiate hard with existing employers the leaving date. He can promise to work really hard before then and document his role well etc If employers aren't willing then well he can either stick with it or walk out (and risk being sued for damages).

Purely as a layman, I'd take this route of action before worrying about the legal position. I think it's pretty rare for companies to sue people who leave, and only tends to happen with high end management or very specialist staff where they really could show a quantifiable loss. I think it's generally seen as too much hassle otherwise.

Uncertain

SarEl wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend this action, but if both employers are totally unwilling to negotiate and the offer is unconditional (which it sounds like it now is, but be sure) and you are relatively sure that the employer could not sue for quantifiable losses if you do not work your notice, then rather than lose out on the new job I would simply say that I am leaving on such an such a date and like it or lump it.

Bear in mind that there are risks to this strategy, but given that you have now resigned from the first job and so you cannot rescind that, and could end up with no job, it may be the only option. But I would recommend exhausting any negotiated settlement of the problem before doing this - minimal though the risks are, they are real.

I would agree.

If you give the employer some notice (as you would be doing) you are in a stronger position than if you give none. In the fairly unlikely event that they were to sue then, like any legal claim, they have a duty to mitigate their losses as far as reasonably possible. So, if you give, say, three weeks notice when your contract requires four then a court would normally expect the employer to have had time to plan accordingly. There might be exceptional circumstances when a employer could claim that they are still significantly out of pocket but they would have to work at it.

StaffieTerrier

Thank you for everyone who has replied so far.

A bit of background:
He's a qualified electrical engineer who was made redundant. He managed to get the job he currently has, working as a maintentance supervisor in a hotel, but it pays a lot less than prior to him being made redundant. The new job is back to what he was doing before, hence the concern about losing the new job.

He's also very concerned about being sued by his current employers if he leaves early. They've been difficult for him to work with from the start and seem to make life difficult for many of the staff working for them (I know of others that have worked there).

I agree with lizzywig and think the new employers will shoot themselves in the foot if they withdraw the job and have to go through the recruitment process again. This is especially as the contract sat on someones desk for two weeks before he got it to sign.

I'll encourage him to keep negotiating with his current employers.

Acc72

StaffieTerrier wrote: »

I'll encourage him to keep negotiating with his current employers.

From how you describe his current employer, he doesn't exactly owe them a whole bunch of favours (although the new company do not sound good with regards to their approach - may also be indicative of how they treat their staff ?).

When do the new company want him to start and when does the current company want him to stay until ?

If you are only talking a week or 2 then it isn't worth risking the new job.

Just write to the current employer thanking them for the opportunity of working for them and to confirm that they will leave on Friday xxx (to start at the new company on the Monday).

Just leave it at that - they may withhold outstanding holiday pay, but better to lose that than the new higher paid job.