Retail Appointment January 18 TRAP_Jan 2018_DigitalEditionHI | Page 7
binding?
irstly, look at your legal position.
Your potential employer is certainly
entitled to make their job offer con-
ditional on a specific start date. There is
nothing you can do about this. If they re-
main firm, then you may miss out on the
job opportunity. So, the only give and take
will be with your current employer.
F
Almost all employment contracts will have
the wording “x months’ notice or payment
in lieu thereof.” Unfortunately, this cuts
both ways. This means that if you break
your contract and, say just walk out at the
end of the month, your current or by now
ex-employer could ask you to pay them
the two months’ pay in lieu of notice.
They may withhold this from any money
due to you such as your last salary pay-
ment, holiday pay or outstanding
bonuses. Failing that, they could easily
make a claim against you in the county
court to recover damages for your
breaking that notice.
Such damages would normally be re-
stricted to the two months’ equivalent pay
that you did not work, but if you are a very
senior candidate, say head of buying, you
should most certainly take full legal advice
before simply breaking your contract.
For certain jobs, such as buying, em-
ployers have longer notice periods, not so
much to keep you there until they find a
replacement but to stop you working for
a competitor too soon after you have left
their employment. senior roles your new employer will under-
stand the need for longer notice periods.
In such circumstances they would require
you to go on garden leave. This means
that you don’t go into work with the old
employer but you cannot yet work for you
new employer. In such circumstances it
would be very dangerous to break your
contract. Finally, what happens if you haven’t
signed your contract? Nothing. You are
bound by the contract if you have turned
up to work and accepted the salary. The
only way you would not be bound by it
would be if you had written to the em-
ployer expressly rejecting that clause and
the employer hadn’t responded. This is
often a nightmare scenario at first but al-
most always can be resolved by sensible
negotiation.
For the vast majority of jobs though, al-
most always a sensible compromise can
be achieved. What usually happens is that
when you tell the current employer that you
are leaving they are initially upset and un-
cooperative — unless, of course, they’re
glad to get rid of you. After a couple of
days though, you will often find that they
will give ground.
Similarly, your new employer may well
compromise too. Having gone to the
trouble of finding the right candidate
(which isn’t easy these days), they are not
going to want to start the process again. It
is highly unlikely that they have an alterna-
tive candidate in the wings.
So, the advice here is to get
a negotiated settlement.
Appeal to your old employer to give some
ground and ask the new employer to give
some ground also. Only in very senior
roles where there is sensitive information
are you likely to hit a brick wall. In such
Don’t make threats and
don’t react badly if things
go adversely.
Perhaps try putting the new employer in
touch with the current employer and let
them sort it out. And, remember this, the
more difficult it is the more valued you are!
Peter Burgess
Readers are welcome to respond to these articles by
visiting our website at
www.retailappointment.co.uk/POL, where they can
review other issues or make comments on this advice.
Got a new question? Just email us at
[email protected] or visit us on the
website. This advice is meant for general entertainment
purposes only and, if you have a specific issue on
which you need help, you are advised to seek the
advice of a solicitor, HR Consultant or can obtain free
advice from ACAS.
“When you tell the current employer that you
are leaving they are initially upset and
uncooperative — unless, of course, they’re
glad to get rid of you.”
retailappointment.co.uk
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