When employees give notice

The minimum statutory notice an employee must give the employer is one week, although the employment contract can require longer notice.

Not giving enough notice is a breach of contract. However, to succeed in a claim for breach of contract against the employee, the employer must show that by giving short notice the employee caused foreseeable financial loss. The employer must take reasonable steps to mitigate (i.e. reduce) their losses, for example, by sharing duties among existing staff.

A successful claim is more likely when someone has special skills or is engaged on a particular assignment and the employer can show that it incurred extra costs, for example, employing a more expensive agency worker, to complete a project as a result of being let down by the employee giving short notice.

Even if an employee fails to work their full notice, their employer is not allowed to make deductions from their wages unless a clear contract term allows this. This includes attempts to make employees forfeit their holiday pay because they have given short notice.

The contract term must have been agreed in advance — usually by signing the contract. Otherwise there will be an unlawful deduction from wages (see Chapter 4, page 91):

Even if the contract contains a term agreeing in advance the amount of compensation to be paid if the employee fails to work their notice, that term can sometimes be attacked as a penalty. A penalty is a contract term that aims to punish or deter the employee from breaking the contract, instead of to compensate the employer for their loss. Penalty clauses are unenforceable.