2 staff have left without notice - anything i can do?

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
or perhaps sue for the 4 weeks pay they now owe for leaving early?
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You do not want to go down that road because you will find yourself on the dock at the end.

If people left without notice means only one thing. They weren't happy with their job.

I have handed over my notice and left on the day in two occasions over the last 20 years. (actually happened in a single year)

Might sound wrong to you, but believe me the situation was unbearable. I wasn't happy working there, the whole place was a workhouse, to the extend I put 3 stones in weight and became alcoholic affecting me over the next 4 years. FYI both those companies, had a huge turnout of employees and couldn't hold people more than 2-3 months. (software development).

So you might reflect to yourself first, and ofc you cannot bad mouth them to their next employer if they send you the reference forms to fill up.
You will be the one paying damages.
 
The costs versus damages are unlikely to be worth the effort, imho. Particularly if you're set to not be able to take on more work while the whole legal charade pans out. Try to get some feedback to improve the situation in future, however, and start hiring.
 
LOL at the "I won't be back for awhile if ever" - if only I could dip in and out of work as I pleased.

End of the day as Fox said people don't up and leave like that for no reason.
 
Panos said:
So you might reflect to yourself first, and ofc you cannot bad mouth them to their next employer if they send you the reference forms to fill up.
You will be the one paying damages.
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If the reference is fair and accurate then he could inform the next employer they left without working their notice.
 
Back to his op.
He was considering sueing them for the money that he would have to pay them if they worked the days they did not?
They have not worked the hours.
He didnt pay in advance.
They havent been overpaid.

Somewhat surprised he was paying monthly not weekly in the first place.
 
Yeah its a bit weird. I think he wants to sue them for lost earnings, because they broke their contact. (did they have a contact?).
 
FYI, even if you change it to 10 days in arrears and a staff member leaves with no notice, it's illegal for you to withhold and wages due, and that include unused holiday entitlement etc.

Notice periods are effectively unenforceable iro employees (with a few very specific exceptions). Notice periods are mainly relevant to employers only.

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
it's in their contract they need to give 4 weeks notice, else if they don't we can look to recover the costs.
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That's an unfair clause and unenforceable. An employment tribunal would laugh it out of court.
 
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I understand two have left, but what has your staff turnover been in the last twelve months?

there may be a bigger game in play here, you might have a bad/nasty manager etc.

I would be looking into this asap, as to avoid any more issues, possibly implenting a whistleblower scheme, to find out what is going on under the surface.

you only have yourself to blame, if this continues.
 
Swifty55 said:
If the reference is fair and accurate then he could inform the next employer they left without working their notice.
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Can refuse to give reference, but not bad mouth them, even if they have gone through tribunal and found the employee wrong.
Full stop. They can drag him to the employers to the courts.
 
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Fairly sure the answer is no said:
they gave no notice, just a text on the day from one of the employees that they wont be coming back for a while, and now today i have got another text saying it will be a long while before they're back if ever.
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So one employee texts that neither of them are coming back?

There won''t be anything you can do, or certainly nothing worth while, other than be glad you are well rid of them.
 
what is the actual job they walked out of because to me it sounds like something low skilled or low paid if they sent you a text message. seen this when i was working on the bins via agencies many times, people get a couple of months worth of money and just vanish generally lads in the late teens and early 20's.

if thats not the case and its something more maybe like a few have already said ask yourself why they have quit in such a fashion, was there an issue you didnt pick up on or another member of staff causing an issue.

and to answer your initial question not really a lot you can do really, you maybe able to try and chase them in a civil court over your lost contracts and all of that but unless you lost £100k's its probably going to cost you more time money and effort going after them then you'd get back. and also a chance if they did leave for a specific reason they could go to the media and make your company look even worse.
 
Assuming he doesn't have more than one business it's a cleaning company.


Personally I don't think it'll be worth your time to chase them. Unfortunately it's going to be the case of taking it on the chin and trying to work out ways to prevent it from happening again.

What others have said about looking into the reasons behind it is going to be a good start.
 
Who cares....

Get on with it, sure its a pain call an agency for a month and hire some more.
maybe get a contingency plan
 
[TW]Fox;29733308 said:
Perhaps look at why the staff turnover seems so high? One member of staff walking out is unfortunate, but two suggests there are issues and your 'how do I penalise people' approach to this is perhaps an insight into these issues..
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Exactly. Losing staff is an occupational hazard, but staff quitting without giving notice suggests serious problems at work. The fact that two went suggests bad management (rather than, say, a personal conflict). As the man says: if your reaction is not to find out why, but to reach for a lawyer, it also suggests that you are the problem.
 
Its the Summer they might have just decided to go to thailand and sod off the UK. Its irelivant, if it happens again then think inwards but just deal with it.
 
Panos said:
Can refuse to give reference, but not bad mouth them, even if they have gone through tribunal and found the employee wrong.
Full stop. They can drag him to the employers to the courts.
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Can refuse to give a reference but if one is given it needs to be "fair reflection and accurate" (from Acas). So you can say things which are "bad" as long as they are factually accurate. "X was a ?????? worker but left providing no notice despite what was documented in the contract of employment" looks like it follows this.
 
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