notice period and contract
Discussion
Hi all
looking for some advice, i joined my current company a number of years ago and as you do signed a contract stating my notice period was 1 month, pretty standard stuff. fast forward 18 months odd and one of my colleges decided to leave for another job, the business took this pretty badly, and the rest of the team subsequently received emails stating our notice period was changed to 3 months and we should reply to the email saying we agreed (or words to that effect), which at the time i did. Now i'm looking for a new position and this 3 months notice isn't doing me any favours, i was wondering what peoples thoughts are? i never actually signed anything, i've never had a "new" contract, is sending an email this way binding? or should it have been more official?
i suppose i could just tell them i'm doing a month and walk out after 4 weeks? i guess this won't do me any favours in terms of a reference, would they have any other recourse?
advice appriecated.
looking for some advice, i joined my current company a number of years ago and as you do signed a contract stating my notice period was 1 month, pretty standard stuff. fast forward 18 months odd and one of my colleges decided to leave for another job, the business took this pretty badly, and the rest of the team subsequently received emails stating our notice period was changed to 3 months and we should reply to the email saying we agreed (or words to that effect), which at the time i did. Now i'm looking for a new position and this 3 months notice isn't doing me any favours, i was wondering what peoples thoughts are? i never actually signed anything, i've never had a "new" contract, is sending an email this way binding? or should it have been more official?
i suppose i could just tell them i'm doing a month and walk out after 4 weeks? i guess this won't do me any favours in terms of a reference, would they have any other recourse?
advice appriecated.
You appear to have agreed to the three month contract change, signing something in the UK isn't a legal requirement.
Best you could do is prepare a good handover document, explain how you can finish up current activity in four weeks and ask them if they would be ok with an earlier release date.
Be prepared for bad news.
You can walk, but if you do there is an outside possibility that if the company occurs actual real loses/damages they could in theory sue for breach... in reality this almost never happens - but it is a risk - only you can really say what there attitude might be.
Gargamel said:
You appear to have agreed to the three month contract change, signing something in the UK isn't a legal requirement.
Best you could do is prepare a good handover document, explain how you can finish up current activity in four weeks and ask them if they would be ok with an earlier release date.
Be prepared for bad news.
You can walk, but if you do there is an outside possibility that if the company occurs actual real loses/damages they could in theory sue for breach... in reality this almost never happens - but it is a risk - only you can really say what there attitude might be.
thanks Chris, i was afraid that would be the case, i did try negotiating previously and got nowhere with it, nore did one of the other guys who's recently left.Best you could do is prepare a good handover document, explain how you can finish up current activity in four weeks and ask them if they would be ok with an earlier release date.
Be prepared for bad news.
You can walk, but if you do there is an outside possibility that if the company occurs actual real loses/damages they could in theory sue for breach... in reality this almost never happens - but it is a risk - only you can really say what there attitude might be.
Ive been on 3 month notices before and negotiated twice down to a month.
My advice would be
1) get things up to date if needed.
2) express the desire to leave earlier with the "right" person and agree/ negotiate on handover and deliverables.
Any half decent manager will realise you will be less motivated and maybe expend some effort beforehand.
Dont burn any bridges but show willing
My advice would be
1) get things up to date if needed.
2) express the desire to leave earlier with the "right" person and agree/ negotiate on handover and deliverables.
Any half decent manager will realise you will be less motivated and maybe expend some effort beforehand.
Dont burn any bridges but show willing
The absence of a signed document is, as already pointed out, immaterial. An agreement could be made or evidenced by an email, and varied by an email, but in your case it appears that the company gave no consideration for the variation of the contract. By this I mean that the company gave or promised nothing in return for agreement to the increased notice period.
On that basis, you could assert that the notice period is one month and not three months. The employer could, if it wished to, seek to enforce the longer notice period by seeking an injunction to restrain you from working from another employer during the notice period. It might be unlikely to do, given the relative shortness of the notice period and the chance of losing an application for an injunction.
Your best bet is to attempt to agree that you can leave on a month's notice without objection. Your bargaining counter is that the company gave nothing in return for the increased notice period. Merely continuing to employ you would arguably not be enough - there is a recent case along these lines (although that case concerned the addition of a restrictive covenant rather than a change in notice period). Reuse Collections Ltd v Sendall [2014] EWHC 3852 (QB), [2015] IRLR 226.
On that basis, you could assert that the notice period is one month and not three months. The employer could, if it wished to, seek to enforce the longer notice period by seeking an injunction to restrain you from working from another employer during the notice period. It might be unlikely to do, given the relative shortness of the notice period and the chance of losing an application for an injunction.
Your best bet is to attempt to agree that you can leave on a month's notice without objection. Your bargaining counter is that the company gave nothing in return for the increased notice period. Merely continuing to employ you would arguably not be enough - there is a recent case along these lines (although that case concerned the addition of a restrictive covenant rather than a change in notice period). Reuse Collections Ltd v Sendall [2014] EWHC 3852 (QB), [2015] IRLR 226.
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