notice period

miss_edith

I have an employee who is leaving after almost 3 years, she has a contract saying that I require 4 weeks notice and has only given me 2 1/2 weeks. Is there anything I can do about this or is the contract actually meaningless?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

have they added any outstanding holidays owed to then to their 4 week notice?

adypem

If they have included their hols then there isn't much you can do.. If not you could hold back any money owed to them.
As they have been with you for 3 years would you really want it to end nastily ?
Can you not come to some sort of agreement ?

Savvy_Sue

If you're asked for a reference you can say that she has not given full notice, but if she's 1.5 weeks leave owing to her then that's not really true, although she should have written to say she was giving 4 weeks and intended to take 1.5 weeks as leave so her last day would be X.

I'm not sure what adypem is saying: you CANNOT withhold wages just because your employee has not given you as much notice as the contract states. You MUST pay them for their last 2.5 weeks, and if they are entitled to any paid leave on top of that, you MUST pay them for that.

adypem

Sue,
I wasn't perhaps the most clear in my comments.
What I was supposed to type was only pay for the 2.5 weeks worked instead of the full month.

Savvy_Sue

Easily done. But we sometimes hear of people who haven't given their full notice, or who have put their employer's nose out of joint in some way, the employer hasn't paid them in full. It's tempting for an employer to think "well then I just won't pay them" but the law seems very clear on this, you can't sanction an employee in this way!

Absolutely the OP should only pay for the 2.5 weeks rather than the full month, UNLESS there is holiday not taken on top of that. Of course, if the OP said "OK, you can go today, I don't WANT you to work your notice", then I think - might be wrong as the employee has given notice - that you would need to pay the full 4 weeks' notice!

miss_edith

Thanks for the replies, the employee has only a few hours holiday left at most which she is demanding on top of her normal money so there is no way it can come to 4 weeks. She herself insists that if paid weekly (as she is) she only has to give 1 weeks notice regardless of what is in the contract and would only have to give 4 weeks if paid monthly. She's causing trouble with the other staff so its a relief that she's leaving but I just wanted to know my rights as I'm so annoyed at her attitude.

Savvy_Sue

it's probably not worth arguing with her, but I would look at the ACAS website. My understanding is that if you have not given her a written statement of terms and conditions which says different, she only has to give one week's notice. And if your T&C ask for MORE than one month's notice, then that has to be 'reasonable' - many senior positions ask for 3 months'.

You could suggest to her that if she thinks she only needs to give a week's notice, surely so do you, and you'd like her to go as soon as possible. Of course you'd check that on the ACAS website first, because I am not sure if you can do that or not.

However, she is right about being entitled to be paid for any leave she hasn't taken. Work it out, set it out in writing so that she cannot dispute it, and wave goodbye with a cheerful heart!

Tooticky

I guess this isn't holy relative and mirrors the other comments, but for what its worth you can write what you like on an employment contract, but it is only the statutory law that counts.

The statutory law entitles an employee to give one weeks notice regardless of time in services, the employer is required to give one weeks notice for every year of service up to a maximum of 12 weeks (except for gross misconduct dismissal).

So to that end as she has given you enough notice and she will only be entitled to pay until her last working day/hour plus any holiday accrued and not a penny more. (You are probably aware but the statutory paid holiday entitlement has increased recently to 4.8 weeks (24 days) (inc. bank holidays).

There are some simple formulas for calculating holiday but without working hours and pay info i can't help sorry

good luck