Leaving work without working my notice?

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

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I've found a new job and my new employer wants me to start ASAP so I gave in my notice yesterday. I'm a small dogsbody but I have a 12 week notice period (boo hoo yes, but it is in my contract). They are usually quite reasonable and previous leavers have been let go with a more reasonable four weeks notice however I've been told that I won't find out the notice period I'll get for at least a couple of weeks, so this means that likely they'll want to keep me for a while.

I'm of the opinion they are doing this so I lose the job offer as punishment for leaving. Sounds silly but that's my company.

There are no clauses in my contract about penalties for leaving early except not getting paid. Is there anything else they can do to harm me if I just walk out the door?
 
Don't expect a reference if you quit without working out your notice. Apart from that, i doubt they will do anything except not pay you. They can take you to court if they want to, but that's just going to cost money and time, and not worth doing for them.
 
Legally there are three options open to them.

1. Let you go

2. Go to court & obtain an injunction to prevent you working for the new company - they could do this if you go to work for a direct competitor & they can show that they needed to do this to protect their interests.

3. They could sue you for the cost of replacement staff for the notice period.

as you can see options 2 & 3 are not cheap options for them, they are also not easy to enforce in law..
 
or just do what some people i knew did when refused permission to leave.

unofficially threated to go off with stress. they wont be able to make you work then anyway and still have to pay you.
 
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