Notice period during probation

Posted by AccSecHR on Tue, 10/10/2006 - 06:16

We took on a staff on a probationary period and stated in the offer letter that if the staff's work does not meet our standard between 1 to 3 months after date of commencement he would be entitled to a week's notice and vice versa. However, it did not specify what period of notice will be required if the employment is terminated before 1 month. After employing this staff for only 3 days we found that his work was so below our standard that we paid him for those 3 days and sent him a P45. He has now left our firm. We have not paid him the week's notice period and naturally he is demanding the same. We feel cheated that he only worked such a short period of time and yet we still have to pay for a week that he will not have worked.

Can anyone advice what the Employment Law states on this matter. Does the offer letter override the Employment law even if later is more beneficial to the employer? No contract of employment was issued at the time he left.

Finally, can we compel him to come & work for a week now even though he left about 2 months ago and is not presently working elsewhere? We can perhaps ask him to do low level work like photocopying, filing, etc? He was employed to do property letting work by us initially.

Look forward to any suggestions or ideas.
Jerry

5092 reads
login or register to post comments
Add to a social bookmarking site

To see the conversation so far or to join in the conversation login here or register , registration is quick and only takes a minute

Had a busy week with two days at the Responsible Business Summit in London. What struck me was the appetite for sustainability in the corporate world. I spoke to senior figures from multinationals who knew wholeheartedly that businesses in the future would not succeed if the society around them failed.

Much of this appetite was understandably focused on collaboration - the future of sustainability. Words that were previously indicative of success - power, might, scale, size - are no longer enough in the open source, peer-reviewed future where opponents will not simply grumble and moan and then leave you in peace. Companies must work with governments, NGOs, charities and social enterprises as a matter of course. And even competitors, where necessary.

Facilitating this collaboration is the big challenge of the next five years. Highly-strung and ego-centric companies, feverish with the need to protect their brand, will struggle the most, but it's either adapt or die.

The business/charity relationship is one of the most interesting focal points. Business power can drive positive social change in so many ways but charities are the key holders to communities. As businesses are expected more and more to play a stake in the future, charity partnerships should be top of the corporate priority list. Businesses that don't work closely with a charity will find themselves with reputational problems.

There's a lot more to CSR, of course, but collaboration is the bedding on which CSR will rest. Businesses can no longer find the answers to all their problems in their own resources and assets.

And for many that's a scary thought.

Any thoughts, thoughts or questions, drop me a line on editor@hrzone.co.uk.

Best wishes

Jamie

Notice period during probation

Create your free account

Login

Editor's Note - May 10

Most read

Most commented