Urgent Advice requried: Experts please help.

Dear all,

I am on HSMP, based in reading and permanently employed in UK from last 2 years with the same employer, I recently resigned by giving my employer 2 month notice as per the term and condition of my employment. After my resignation my employer decided that they can relieve me in 3 weeks timeframe? now I need to know following in lights of that I have given full 2 months notice hence, I must get salary for the entire duration of notice period irrespective of whether my employer wants me to work only 3 weeks during my notice period or for the entire duration.

Considering if my employer do dare not to pay me the salary for the rest of the duration of my notice period what options do I have got on the legal grounds? also I would be grateful if experts could also provide me following information:


* what rights I have got as a skill migrant to get my salary for the entire duration of notice period.
* who are the best lawer in the UK who specialises in dealing with these matters so that UK employers do not take us lighlty and keep on harassing the forigen nationals/immigrant.
* which government body deals with protecting employees interest so that employers can not harrass their employees on the basis of discrimination/race/immigration status etc.
* If I want to sue them on the above grounds what options do I have got and what is the process of doing so?

your urgent response will be highly appreciated.

thanks
SC

any one please help!

regds

SCUK wrote:any one please help!

regds

Go to Employment Tribunal, google for it.

But in my experience the employer holds the upper hand cos he has the cash and can concoct alsorts of reasons why u cost him etc if he feels u've pissed him about.

Plus it can drag on.

If I where u I'd forget and just get another job.

Wanderer,

Thanks for your response but Sorry to say that, you can not be me simply because I find your response completely immature.

The disputed amount is over 35K ( 3 months salary 15K + Comission 20K).

for your kind information, if an employee is leaving with his/her wish employer can not be holding upper hands simply becuase if employee is the star performer of the company have been promoted 4 times in 2 years assosiation, all of a sudden after employee puts the resignation employer can not blame on employee for any thing. If employer feels that after resignation employee will be harmful for his company then he has got the option to relieve the employee immidiately by paying the salary for this entire notice period.

any expert please respond on my earlier post.

regds
SCUK

SCUK wrote:Wanderer,

Thanks for your response but Sorry to say that, you can not be me simply because I find your response completely immature.

The disputed amount is over 35K ( 3 months salary 15K + Comission 20K).

for your kind information, if an employee is leaving with his/her wish employer can not be holding upper hands simply becuase if employee is the star performer of the company have been promoted 4 times in 2 years assosiation, all of a sudden after employee puts the resignation employer can not blame on employee for any thing. If employer feels that after resignation employee will be harmful for his company then he has got the option to relieve the employee immidiately by paying the salary for this entire notice period.

any expert please respond on my earlier post.

regds
SCUK

I'd say i was realistic not immature.

So the amounts are disputed now? In which case you follow my advice and go to an Employment Tribunal.

But realistically, I was in the same boat as you, star performer (I was technical guru not sales tho), I decided to seek pastures new, boss took the hump, froze me out, blamed me for allsorts of things and I never got a penny in the end. And it took months to get nothing.

By all means go for it but focus and ur new job, maybe u can start that earlier then the financial hit isn't so hard? Assuming u resigned cos of new job....

SCUK,

My suggestion is go to the Citizen advice bureau. We are as entitled for it as the locals here.
Draft a forml letter stating the clause of the contract under which you served the notice and any period thereone they do not wish you to work for would be considered generally as Garden leave. Make sure you google enough with all sources ( available on google, under the term 'Unfair Dismissal). This type of laying off an employee is called unfair dismissal.

I speak of this with confidence as I have helped a friend on the same matter. He was escorted out of the building the moment he served a months notice, by his line manager. He was then sent a letter stating that he would get that week's wages and thats that. I then sent him some advice after simple googling on unfair dismissal. He then drafted a letter, sent me a copy. We then made a few changes to it, sent it to HR via email. HR came back to him in the most pleasant of manners and decided to 'offer' him the full month's wage as a gesture of good will for his 2 yrs with the company!! ( Good will my *&$e!!)

At the end of the monthe we went to the local Pub and enjoyed a good meal after receiving the good will in his account...... All due to a simple subject learnt at Uni here called 'Employment law' for 3 months!!!

B/Rgds

Thanks VivekR

Yes I am in absolute agreement with you that Employers in UK can not take us on ride by disputing on our basic rights.

It would be great if you could put a sample of letter similar to the one which you sent to your friend's company's HR. That will help us all of those in similar situation as your friend and mine.


Best regds
SCUK

SCUK,

Are you currently in employment with the company?

Since you have mentioned you gave the notice period first from your side, the employer and you could mutually agree on a date for early termination against the contractual terms. This has to be agreed by both parties in writing/email. If that's the case, your are only eligible for the extra pay as per the perks (holidays, benefit etc )earned till your last day. This is very common in UK, with consultancy type of employers as it saves them(employer) money and gives you enough time to start or plan something new.

If you think you are treated not in the right way,

- write a letter addressed to the HR manager or any directorial level person who is responsible for employing people. In the letter you should clearly mention about your employment contract and notice period terms and situation that you had to face when terminated early without agreement and against your wish . Attach as many documents as possible.

- Give it 3 weeks for a reply for them.

If the company is run by persons with principles and ethics, and provided you are eligible for the money that you claimed in the post (~45K) it is most likely they would settle the same in 4 weeks time without any legal or employment tribunal proceedings.

Good luck !

Hi Vin123,

Yes I am currently employed by them and I have given 2 months notice period as per the terms and condition of my contract. I have not agreed for any early termination against the contractual terms hence, if my employer wants to terminate my employment beforehand it will be clearly a breach of contract and for this I can drag them into employment tribunal /country court.

Yes I have written to them and mentioned clearly that they have breached the contract, since I am currently employed hence, I am following the internal compaint procedure as per the UK Law which are minimum 3 steps i.e. Writing, Hearing and Appeal. As per the internal procedures the timeline for hearing is set as 7 Days and if not sorted then Appeal which will be the Final decision of the company. If It is still not sorted then I can take this final decision letter from Company and then take it to Employment Tribunal who will indeed sort everything out as a matter of urgency. If my company is not able to sort it out internally then it will be really bad for them coz I will not only be compensating with the amount in question but also for all the distress/harrasment caused by my employer.

thanks guys I will keep you posted, meantime do not hesitate in sharing your similar experience to the board.

cheers
SCUK

Something that stands out, me not knowing any better:

20K in comission really can only be claimed against actual performance. Projecting it aginst what 'might have been' isn't going to fly very far.

Also, your first post said two months, then you went for three months.

5K / month ..? You should be able to qualify for HSMP without comission, unless you have no degree of any sort.

I'm not sure I get the issue here.

Seems they gave you 3 weeks aginst your two months .. ~6200 quid difference. You'll lose that much in legal fees.

All the "star performer" really won't mean much of nothing if you take it to court. You did not state the terms of your contract or reasoning company used to issue 3 week notice.

What am I missing in this?

2 months Notice Salary + 1 month salary of the month when I put my resignation i.e. on 29th OCT, We get salary on 31st as per our comapny's internal rule.

Any how I recently got the salary for the month in which I resigned ( was a delayed payment as we get paid by cheque)

hence, the amount in question now is 10K+20K i.e. 30K

5K/ Month without a degree in UK !! not feasible mate, me holding 2 masters degree, HSMP extention not a problem even in new rules.

No need to go to seek assistance from Lawers when Employment Tribunal and Citizen advisory boards do this for free. Even lawers charge 25% of what they can recover , you will always get a big piece of cake even after seeking legal assistance from Private.


cheers
SCUK

Thanks for the clarification.

I thought this was about being able to stay in the UK, but you've got that covered.

Then it becomes about the money.

To summarize, what I see here is that they gave you a three week notice after you gave a 2 month notice.

I don't know much of anything about UK law on this. A 2 month notice is unheard of in the U.S., where I hail from.

My thinking would be that your contract needs a specific clause in it for a 2-month. Maybe not. I don't know what conventions can be applied for under UK labor law.

That said, 30-day notice is pretty normal. Not sure why you didn't get that.

Either they gave you three weeks aginst 30 days, or they gave you three weeks against your eight weeks.

The comission still gets me, though. It's not part of your salary. It's based upon actual work & funds brought in. I'm at a loss as to how you can claim something that hasn't happened (I understand your thinking about the probability of the income based upon past performance, but I don't think there's a legal basis to claim it).

Again, under UK law, maybe you can. Under U.S. law you'll get laughed out of court.

Did your employer give specific reasoning as to the three weeks?

Most places in the U.S. have "at-will employment" laws. The employer can walk up to your desk and say "Leave now. You are trespassed from company property. Turn in all company property, including all passwords, etc. You are forbidden to have contact with any company employee other than designated persons to resolve human resources issues. Have a nice day."

I lived & worked in the U.S. for 25 years and never heard of a 2-month notice. People who have accrued vacation time get paid for their remaining vacation, but allowed sick days are a write-off.

All that and ... this doesn't seem to be an immigration issue.

Is it?

SCUK wrote: if my employer wants to terminate my employment beforehand it will be clearly a breach of contract and for this I can drag them into employment tribunal /country court.
SCUK

It 'clearly' will not be a breach of contract provided there are 'other clauses' which allows employer to terminate you early.

I still don't understand, if the employer owes you such a huge sum, why didn't you sort it out amicably before handing over your notice?
Handing over your notice and fighting for money (commision or benefits or other forms) will always puts the other person in a defensive mode (no matter employer or employee)

vilkatis wrote:I lived & worked in the U.S. for 25 years and never heard of a 2-month notice. People who have accrued vacation time get paid for their remaining vacation, but allowed sick days are a write-off.

2 months (even 3 months!) notice is quite common in the UK in my area of work (IT consultancy)
It is shown on papers just for ‘assurance purposes’ where business deals and contracts between parties involve manpower and skills for a large sum of money. Normally employee and the employer will come to a mutual settlement when either of them decide to end the relationship in a professional manner. Sometimes, 3 months notice on papers could be as low as two weeks with all your accruals earned in the period paid-on.

The point is, don’t get put off if you see an employment contract in the UK showing 3 months notice. Smile.. its just a typical Brit way of assuring things.