What should I pay her for? Carer walked out in breach of contract

[DoubleLifeIsALifeHalved]

Carer resigned after 2 weeks without any notice. The contract stated 1 weeks notice but she just upped & left. Now I need to know what I should pay her. As much as I want to be fair, I am not feeling great about her really screwing up & being as to walk away in breach of contract with no penalty. Any idea what the law is on this?

It was a shock to me as her employer as well as to the other carer who worked alongside her. She texted me to say she wasn't coming back at almost 9pm when she was due in at 8am the next day, no time to arrange a replacement, & caused huge problems. I asked get if there was anything wrong, anything I could do etc but she said no & later to the other carer that she found it too hard emotionally as she got upset that I was so ill & she didn't want to see me again as she liked me & would feel 'mean'. So dumped me in it instead - how kind!

Anyway, whats the law on this?

Sorry you have been left in the lurch, how stressful.

Legally, if the contract said one week's notice then you would be entitled to damages being equal to the additional cost to you of hiring someone else for that week (that is, additional to what you would have paid her for that week, as you would have had to pay that anyway), or, unless your contract prevents it, you could withhold the last week's pay if you have been paying in advance ( which seems unlikely). You do have to pay her for what she has actually worked.

In practice I suspect it is not going to be worth your whole pursuing the legal angle as (1) the amount of damages you could claim would be very low (for only one week) and (2) a carer is unlikely to have assets to satisfy a judgment.

I hope you have better luck with the next person, this sounds a complete nightmare.

It's happened before too :( feel like there are alot of people who will just work as if job is cash in hand even though it's not. Ah pooh.

Btw Am all for workers rights but think something's gone wrong when really employees can behave however they want & totally ignore any professionalism or contract, & cause me physical harm in the process :( I hate being disabled

Who does your payroll, do they not have a free advice line?

My close friend is dependent on carers and the employer side of it is enough to give anyone nightmares so you have my sympathies.