As an employer you are required to give your employee notice unless of course they have committed an act of gross misconduct. Notice can be worked, served out on garden leave or paid in lieu depending on the terms of the contract. Unfortunately not all employees give the required length of notice or any notice and seek to leave immediately normally where they have a better offer. In some cases the employee may fail to give notice as they say they have been constructively dismissed but this is not the sort of case I am writing about.
Employers are then left in a difficult situation, some are happy to agree reduced notice as it costs them less but others that are wanting to keep their ex-employee away from their customers or stop them going straight to a competitor may want that longer period. So what can employers do?
Well they can sue for breach of contract if they suffer losses and in the case of Sunrise Brokers LLP v Rodgers [2014] the employer went further. The employer sought an injunction requiring the employee to observe the terms of his contract until the termination date.
The High Court has made a declaration that an employee who had purported to resign with immediate effect, in repudiatory breach of contract, was still employed as his employer had not accepted his breach. An injunction was granted, requiring him to observe his contract until an agreed date. The employee, who had not returned to work following his purported resignation, was not entitled to be paid during this time as he was not ready and willing to work. So in this case the employee could not start his new role but was paid nothing as he had failed to work.
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