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Original poster

Employment Law

19 replies

hatty44 · 24/04/2016 15:16

I started a job in a nursery school - two mornings - just for one term. I have only done a week, but it is simply too much. My childcare fell through, the journey is horrendous, the parking costs are so high, I am panicking about it and just not coping. Pathetic I know but its too much stress for what it brings.
I don't have a copy of the contract so I don't know what it says. As I have only just started I thought offering to work another week would be fair enough notice to allow her to find agency staff to cover. I am aware she needs the teacher/child ratio to be right. She has said I must stay til half term as she will advertise the post this week then has to interview, take up references and it all takes time. By then the post will only be half a term so she may not get many applicants anyway, then what. Am I forced to stay til then?
As I have been there fore such a short time can I just leave? All the employment details on google give details of when you have been in a job for at least a month.
If I got sick tomorrow she would have to find cover so she is not being truthful saying she has no other option. I suspect agency staff are more expensive hence trying to insist I stay.
I just want to know if I can just leave or whether I have to stay for the length of time the contract says (even though I don't know what that is!)

OP posts:
eurochick · 24/04/2016 15:20

If you don't work your contractual notice your employer could claim the cost of cover from you - overtime or agency staff - if that is what they have to do to run their business. In practice it rarely happens but that is the risk you run.

AgentProvocateur · 24/04/2016 15:34

It would be really poor to leave them in the lurch. Can you not sort out alternative childcare for the rest of the term? Presumably you took this job as a stepping stone to getting something more permanent?

Original poster
hatty44 · 24/04/2016 15:35

Thank you - I wondered if that was the case...

OP posts:
insancerre · 24/04/2016 15:47

www.gov.uk/handing-in-your-notice/giving-notice

Original poster
hatty44 · 24/04/2016 16:36

Thanks isancerre - that gives info if you have been in the job more than a month, I wonder about less than a month..

OP posts:
BorisIsBack · 24/04/2016 16:39

Did they it give you a contract? Or did you loose it/ not take your own copy? Ask for a copy of you signed it.

DoreenLethal · 24/04/2016 16:52

If you have been there less than a month then you pretty much can walk out or not turn up. In reality that is.

Did they give you any contract at all that you have signed?

insancerre · 24/04/2016 19:22

I'm a manager
If you have been there less than a month than you can jet walk and you don't need to give notice
I'm actually a preschool manager and I would rather you just left than me wondering if you were going to turn up for your next shift
The setting can get agency staff in if they really have to
You don't need to give notice and you don't need to stay until half term

80sMum · 24/04/2016 19:36

You've only been there one week? In that case you have no contractual obligations and neither does the nursery school have any obligation to you. You can just walk away. No notice required. Similarly, they could just sack you with no notice.

However it would be kinder to give them some notice. A week should be sufficient.

eurochick · 24/04/2016 20:27

Er, how can you know what the OP's contractual obligations are. No one, not even the OP, can tell you what they are!

Internet legal advice can be very dangerous!

Cindy34 · 24/04/2016 21:11

Statutory notice is one week.

Unclear here if you have ever seen a contract, thus if contractual notice would apply. Also if that contract contained a probation period.

FishWithABicycle · 24/04/2016 21:21

What does your contract say? Normally it starts with a probation period with a very short notice option in each direction. If you don't have a written contract they are unlikely to be able to do anything about it if you walk away.

Balletgirlmum · 24/04/2016 21:23

It is a daycare nursery or a school setting as the terms of notice for teaching are quite draconian.

Original poster
hatty44 · 24/04/2016 21:40

Thanks all.
It's a nursery school. Only on a term contract, but I don't have a copy of it so don't know notice period. I told her I was unhappy and would like to work one more week but she said no way. She would have to readvertise etc and i have to stay til replacement found earliest being half term. Can I insist she gives me a copy of contract so I can see for myself?

OP posts:
insancerre · 25/04/2016 06:28

Your contract doesn't apply if you have been there less than a month

BorisIsBack · 25/04/2016 06:50

Yes you should insist on a copy of your contract.

BorisIsBack · 25/04/2016 06:51

If you haven't already signed it then don't sign it now.

DoreenLethal · 25/04/2016 07:00

OP

What terms have you been given already ie how did you know you even have thw job? A letter? Just a phone call? Whatever you have had, refer to that.

if you have had nothing in writing, just tell her you are not going back. If you had a letter and in it it says anything about notice period, tell us what it actually says.

Dont insist on a copy of your contract if you havent already signed/had one as they can then hold you to it. If it were me, id just call her today and say i wasnt coming back.

IceMaiden73 · 30/04/2016 12:04

Call ACAS for advice

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