Handing notice in over Christmas shutdown help!?

npritch

Hello Everyone, I hope you can help me!

I don't know when to hand my notice in at my current employer.
My new job starts on Monday 6th January but my work has a Christmas shutdown from the 20th December till the 2nd Jan.

I only have to give 1 weeks notice which means I would need to hand my notice in on Christmas week which I can't do in person.

Does the 1 week notice still apply when there is a Christmas shutdown? I would hate to hand it in and then be told it needs to be 1 working week notice because I will be at my new job by then.

My plan is to hand it in on Thursday 19th December stating it is a 2 week notice but I'm worried I'm either going to be made to work the 1st week back from the shutdown or they will simply say its a 1 week notice only and I will then lose a weeks pay.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, I don't want to get this wrong and be out of pocket or cause problems at my new job!

Natalie.

getmore4less

How long have you worked there?

Do you use holiday from your allowance for the shut down week?
any accrued unused holiday available.

What does the contract say about notice?

There is always email and post if you won't be in the workplace.

Undervalued

npritch wrote: »

Hello Everyone, I hope you can help me!

I don't know when to hand my notice in at my current employer.
My new job starts on Monday 6th January but my work has a Christmas shutdown from the 20th December till the 2nd Jan.

I only have to give 1 weeks notice which means I would need to hand my notice in on Christmas week which I can't do in person.

Does the 1 week notice still apply when there is a Christmas shutdown? Yes it does. I would hate to hand it in and then be told it needs to be 1 working week notice because I will be at my new job by then.

My plan is to hand it in on Thursday 19th December stating it is a 2 week notice but I'm worried I'm either going to be made to work the 1st week back from the shutdown They can't do that or they will simply say its a 1 week notice only and I will then lose a weeks pay. That they could theoretically do but they would, in effect, be dismissing you with a week's notice. If you have more than two years notice you could (in theory) claim unfair dismissal!

Any help will be greatly appreciated, I don't want to get this wrong and be out of pocket or cause problems at my new job!

Natalie.

See comments above.

Technically notice begins the day after it is issued. If you have any untaken holiday they could insist you take it during the notice period but, as the firm will be shut then there is little alternative for them to pay you for the unused leave.

The simple solution is just to give a week's notice, making clear that the notice starts on XX Dec and that you will be leaving on (presumably) Fri 3 January. Hand this to your manager with a copy to HR (if there is one) on your last working day.

npritch

Thanks for the reply.

I have been here 1 year exactly.
I had to keep 5 days of my holiday as stated in my contract for the Christmas shutdown so its all coming out my holiday apart from the bank holidays. And I have 3 days holiday left after that but they will most likely take some of that because the holiday entitlement runs from March.

The contract just says you have to give 1 weeks notice if you have worked there under 2 years and 4 weeks notice after that.
I am afraid that if I approach them and ask what the best plan of action is they will just say thats my 1 week verbal notice and I will be out of pocket even more, they dont have a good track record of taking people handing there notice in well.

General_Grant

npritch wrote: »

Hello Everyone, I hope you can help me!

I don't know when to hand my notice in at my current employer.
My new job starts on Monday 6th January but my work has a Christmas shutdown from the 20th December till the 2nd Jan.

I only have to give 1 weeks notice [how much notice does the employer have to give to you? that is, how many complete years of service with them do you have?] which means I would need to hand my notice in on Christmas week which I can't do in person.

Does the 1 week notice still apply when there is a Christmas shutdown? [Christmas closure doesn't mean you can't serve your notice during that period.] I would hate to hand it in and then be told it needs to be 1 working week notice because I will be at my new job by then.

My plan is to hand it in on Thursday 19th December stating it is a 2 week notice but I'm worried I'm either going to be made to work the 1st week back from the shutdown [they can't enforce that] or they will simply say its a 1 week notice only and I will then lose a weeks pay. [in your resignation letter state your final day of employment - 5 January if you want]

Any help will be greatly appreciated, I don't want to get this wrong and be out of pocket or cause problems at my new job!

Natalie.

They could give counter-notice to you but whether that would mean you lost a week's pay would depend on how long you have worked for them and therefore what your statutory notice would be.

Undervalued

General_Grant wrote: »

They could give counter-notice to you but whether that would mean you lost a week's pay would depend on how long you have worked for them and therefore what your statutory notice would be.

The OP has been there a year so the statutory notice, if the employer is giving notice / counter notice, is only a week.

As I said it is a theoretical possibility. Another possibility is to put the week's notice through the door (with a witness and date stamped photo) eight days before leaving.

Undervalued

npritch wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

I have been here 1 year exactly.
I had to keep 5 days of my holiday as stated in my contract for the Christmas shutdown so its all coming out my holiday apart from the bank holidays. And I have 3 days holiday left after that but they will most likely take some of that because the holiday entitlement runs from March.

The contract just says you have to give 1 weeks notice if you have worked there under 2 years and 4 weeks notice after that.
I am afraid that if I approach them and ask what the best plan of action is they will just say thats my 1 week verbal notice and I will be out of pocket even more, they dont have a good track record of taking people handing there notice in well.

Yes, they would be entitled to do that. In fact, if you do your sums, you may actually owe them about a day. Roughly you accrue just over two days holiday each month so with two months to run you probably need to deduct about 4.5 days from your annual entitlement. How much will you have taken it total by 3 January?

getmore4less

They need to have a claw back clause in the contract if they want to apply accrual based on service to get back overused holiday.

Not legal but they can take it anyway by just not paying.

npritch

Could I give a weeks notice stating it is from the 25th of December but hand it in on my last working day on the 20th December?
So I would end up handing it in in person but it wont start till over the Christmas period?

TELLIT01

If you hand it in at close of business on the 20th they won't have time to act and potentially end your employment one week later on the 28th. Not a course of action I would normally suggest, but if they haven't reacted well when others have handed their notice in it may be your best option.

General_Grant

Undervalued wrote: »

The OP has been there a year so the statutory notice, if the employer is giving notice / counter notice, is only a week.

As I said it is a theoretical possibility. Another possibility is to put the week's notice through the door (with a witness and date stamped photo) eight days before leaving.

When I was writing my reply there were no replies in the thread! So they might have been entitled to more statutory notice.

I still believe that putting the actual date of termination in the letter would mean they would either have to terminate the employment or accept it and not say "but you only have to give a week and we shall ignore the fact that you are giving more".