Am I legally obliged to work a period of notice?

[tiredemma]

I work weekends for a private healthcare company. I earn minimum wage for working a friday night shift and 6 hours on a sunday. The place where I work can only be described as hell on earth. I have never work anywhere where I have felt so devalued and demoralised as a member of staff.

I have managed to get on to the bank/temp staffing agency for the Local NHS trust and yesterday did just 6 hours work an earnt more than I would on a night shift for the other company.

The bank/temp staff agency have offered me more work and tbh, Im tempted to just not bother with the private company job and phone them to tell them to cancel any shifts that they have rotered me in for.
Can they withold any pay though?

I really do not want to go back there, I hate having the piss taken out of me and this is exactly what they do. The wage that I receive from them is in no way reflected in the back breaking work that I do.

I love the residents but cannot bear the place.

what can I do?

[FAQ]

oh I'm not sure on the legalities of it all -but can sympathise greatly with the work. I also worked nights in private care home - I earned 5.50 an hour (before the minimum wage went up) and was treated like shit. The residents were fantastic, I LOVED the work, but the way I was treated was absolutely awful.

Thankfully I got out of it as I fell pg with DS3, took my AL before my maternity leave, then as soon as the new AL year started (I was still on Maternity leave) I handed in my notice. I couldn't have gone back there it was demoralising the way I was treated.

[Sparks]

If you have done the work, they have to pay you for it.

In theory, if you don't work your notice, they could sue you for breach of contract. In practice, it never happens.

[tiredemma]

I really cannot bear the thought of doing another night shift for a bare pittance. Its soul destroying.

[monkeymonkeymonkey]

They have to pay you for the work that you have done.
I was once in a similar situation, and I waited until I had been paid before I told them I wasnt coming back.

[flowerybeanbag]

They musy pay you for work done. You would be in breach of contract by not working your notice period but as Sparks says, highly unlikely that they'd bother doing anything about that.

More of a problem is that it's likely to affect your reference.