Unusual notice period in contract

hc25036

I'll try to keep this short. The contract in question is with a small company, mostly staffed by graduates in their first job. Turnover is high.

This person has been there just over a year and the contract states that:

The employment may be terminated:

1. by the employee on giving the Employer not less than 3 months' written notice.

2. by the employer on giving the employee written notice as follows:

2.1 during the first year by giving not less than one months' notice

2.2 after one year by giving not less than 2 months' notice


Thus, the employee is stuck with 3 months and the employer either one or two months.


The employee has a new job and needs to leave after two months notice.

I know the usual advice is that the employer would need to prove losses for not working notice, etc, but is the uneven distribution of notice period likely to be enforceable anyway?

By the way, when the last person left, absolutely nothing was done in the 3 months notice period in terms of finding a replacement or even reallocating work!

Many thanks for your help - the person involved is a young graduate panicking about causing problems...

getmore4less

Enforceable,

if people don't like the 3 months don't accept the job on those terms.

Will have to negotiate for shorter notice or get the employer to terminate(probably not that hard).

Make sure they have an unconditional offer and references have been taken up before resigning.

anamenottaken

hc25036 wrote: »

I'll try to keep this short. The contract in question is with a small company, mostly staffed by graduates in their first job. Turnover is high.

This person has been there just over a year and the contract states that:

The employment may be terminated:

1. by the employee on giving the Employer not less than 3 months' written notice.

2. by the employer on giving the employee written notice as follows:

2.1 during the first year by giving not less than one months' notice

2.2 after one year by giving not less than 2 months' notice


Thus, the employee is stuck with 3 months and the employer either one or two months.


The employee has a new job and needs to leave after two months notice.

I know the usual advice is that the employer would need to prove losses for not working notice, etc, but is the uneven distribution of notice period likely to be enforceable anyway?

By the way, when the last person left, absolutely nothing was done in the 3 months notice period in terms of finding a replacement or even reallocating work!

Many thanks for your help - the person involved is a young graduate panicking about causing problems...

Well, it's legal. If the employer wanted to pursue the (ex-)employee for breaking this term of their contract they could do so.