Returning pay in lieu of notice

[MortyVicar]

I haven't made any firm decisions, but I'm trying to explore my options.

Things are bad at work in terms of the way senior management are treating all staff, not just me. If one day I've had enough and want to walk out of the door, and hand them a cheque for my last three months' salary (gross plus employer's NI - everything they've paid out in my name) do they have to accept it and let me go, or legally can they insist I actually work my notice period?

Should have said - my notice period is three months, I haven't picked that amount out of thin air.

It doesn’t work like that I’m afraid .... they still have to pay you on your notice period so returning the money wouldn’t change anything

You could walk out and refuse to work
Your notice I guess .... not sure they’d bother to pursue you through the courts to enforce the contract but they would probably give you a terrible reference

What would the cheque be for? They won’t have paid you your notice so why would they need it reimbursing?

Whether they can force you to work your notice, well clearly they can’t drag you to work and lock you in all day. If you walk out without serving your notice there is a risk they might take legal action against you for breach of contract. This is not that likely unless they will incur financial loss as a result of you not staying for your notice period.

The bigger risk for most people is that they jeopardise a reference from that employer.

Hi
You don’t meed to pay them anything. You would be in breach of contract but your employer cannot force you to work so they can either pay you to stay at home or take out an injunction to stop you working elsewhere. Technically they can make a claim against you for breach of contract if they have any financial losses but it’s unlikely. State in your resignation letter that you are leaving immediately due their conduct, which you consider repudiates the contract.

You could also seek advice from ACAS to see if you have a case for constructive dismissal.

Thank you for the replies. it's certainly something that used to happen but may well have changed.

The logic was that if you repaid your salary for the last three months you'd worked, they'd had three months of free labour in exchange for you walking straight out. So if I wanted to walk out tomorrow, I'd repay my salary for September, August and July.

If that's not even possible, let alone whether it's possible but do they have to accept it, I'll have to think about other options.

Don't give them a penny piece, you'll get no thanks for it, neither will they ever acknowledge wrongdoing. Keep the cash in your bank account. If you decide you can't put up with whatever is driving you away you will need that money.

Pull out the stops to get a new job and try to negotiate an earlier release. The minute you've handed in your notice I bet you that 3 month's salary the stress will drain away and they'll get off your case.

”it's certainly something that used to happen but may well have changed.”

I have to say, I’ve worked in HR for almost 20 years and I’ve never heard of anything like that happening.

It’s possible, as in if course you could hand them a cheque, but they would be foolish from a legal point of view to accept it, and they certainly don’t have to, and unless it was a negotiation with an agreed settlement agreement specifying that in return your employment will end with immediate effect, then them accepting a cheque for a sum of money wouldn’t in itself remove their right to insist you work your notice.