Moving at short notice and hanging in notice to work

[ODFOkaren]

We have to move 200 miles away.

Unfortunately as we are at the mercy of landlords and estate agents, we aren’t going to have much notice.

We are going through referencing on a new place at the moment but it’s all been held up as the estate agent has been closed for two weeks over Xmas.

Dh is going up there tomorrow to see them in person, chase everything up etc.

Because it’s all up in the air I haven’t given notice at work. I’ve had rental properties fall through before and we can’t live where we are if I’m not working and living here we claim top up housing benefit which means that if I had given notice before now and was still living here while we were waiting to move or if it fell through it would have caused a lot of problems. (We won’t need any help when we do move as the rent is a quarter of the price where we are going).

I am supposed to give 4 weeks notice at work but we might get the go ahead tomorrow to move in two weeks.

Being so far away I can’t travel for work (it’s minimum wage care work, a weeks pay wouldn’t even cover the travel for one day).

I have no holiday let and I am off work sick this week and have been told I’ll be signed off for the next two (SSP as we don’t get sick pay where I work) as I’ve got pneumonia and other complications with it).

Hopefully will get a contract for the new house end of this week or beginning of next but I am loathe to hand in my notice before I have that in my hand just incase I leave my self unemployed.

I know I might have to take the hit and they can recoup their ‘costs’ by keeping my final Months pay - is this something they can do?

@RaeCJ82 I didn’t get it either. But I needed to take the holiday as I was ill then with a chest infection (which has got worse and turned into what I have now) and needed to take it before the December cut off as we can’t take holiday for 4 weeks over the holiday Period. I was too desperate to take the holiday to argue as I don’t get sick pay and couldn’t afford to take a week off unpaid - which worked out well

The managers have no clue what they are doing. I’ve never worked anywhere so disorganised and unprofessional and head office seem to be just as bad.

You take 24 hours holiday to cover contracted hours. Unless your 36 hours has become implied contractual if you have always done it. This is confusing me and it's what I do on a daily basis. Maybe ACAS is your best bet for advice on the holiday pay. You need someone to check your contract terms.

That's ridiculous. Quite honestly I would just cut my losses, leave without working notice and draw a line under it.

@Todaythiscouldbe no my contract is still 24 hours. They are just always short staffed so it’s easy to pick up another shift.

Below is part of an email from my manager when I was asking why I had to take more holiday than my hours. It’s clear as mud.

“You don't have to take the full week A/L Mon - Friday if you don't want to but you need to take A/L to cover your hrs for example if your contract is 24hrs, you need to take 3 days to complete your hrs for that week.”

@RaeCJ82 I know. The turnover is so high because of stuff like this. I work nights and I’m on my own so I don’t really know any of the other staff, I only ever see them for 10 mins at hand over and I never see the managers face to face.

I’m sure some must have quit without notice before. It’s mainly young people who are only ever there a couple of months a time, it’s not a great place.

So your shifts are 8 hours but you work 4 hours overtime per shift?

No the shifts are 12 hours.

I’m contracted to do 24 hours a week, 2 night shifts. But I do an extra 12 hour shift every week.

No pay difference between day and night shift, no extra pay for bank holidays.

Ok. It appears, although it is unclear, that theyboay 8 hours per day of holiday booked. So if you wanted to cover 24 hours you'd have to book 3 days, 32 hours would be 4 days etc. This is unusual but not unheard of. Again, without knowing the specifics of your contract nobody can really advise you.
The thing is, if you fight for your holiday pay, they will probably claim a similar (or higher) figure back if you don't work notice so you need to decide if it is worth the additional stress only to need to effectively repay it all in a months time.

*they pay 8 hours per day

Thank you that is so helpful.

I’ll just wait until I’ve got the contract and speak to my manager. She’s been ignoring me anyway, apart from replying to me saying she’s not received any of my emails when I asked again what was going on.

The contract for the tenancy I mean/

Can you say you are handing your notice in. You are definitely off sick for first two weeks and no guarantee that you will be well enough to work the rest of the notice but you would be happy to go now and have a clean break. They may prefer that to the uncertainty of whether you will be well enough to come back anyway.

Hand in work notice when you have the new home contract for your new location.

Push for the £600 holiday pay to be paid. Stay off work with your sick note and push that as long as possible into your notice period. If you need to leave and still need to be at work, tell them you can't come in and take the hit when they dock your pay (but you'll have your holiday pay to balance that out). They are likely to not pay you for the hours you aren't in plus you'll need to pay back any holiday pay you've taken that you haven't accrued.

If you're going to need a reference then you'll need to stick out your notice, whether in work or off sick or be prepared to spin it at an interview. Is there potentially any way you could camp out at a friends for the notice time left if you need to move out of your flat?

They can't dock her pay. Legally they have to pay her for the work she has done (plus the holidays). If they want to claim breach of contract, then that's a separate legal action which they may or may not win.

They can deduct holiday taken that hasn't been accrued from final salary.

They can. But she said that the year runs to the end of December and she's been off sick. Therefore there's no holiday pay to deduct.