Notice period

[LaurelGrove]

Hoping someone knowledgeable can help. We have a Ukrainian woman staying with us. After a couple of months collecting glasses in the local pub she's found an admin job in a solicitor firm which is great. It is not great pay (£11.05 an hour) but it's full time and as she has no rent or bills to pay she will be able to save for a rental deposit.

Anyway she asked me to look at the contract. All seems fine apart from a 12 week notice period on her side, from the start. And on their side, 1 week during the probation period, then one month after that.

Three months seems very long for an admin role. Is this normal these days at a junior level?

No it's not normal. I would have expected it to match the length the employer needs to give (and the after 5 years employer 's side goes up 1 extra week per year of service up to 12 weeks) but never the employee side.

I'd advise her to give 1 month's notice and be dine with it.

Is she planning on leaving the job? Seems a bit odd to worry about a notice period of a job you have only just started and personally would like to keep. I imagine they have just used the same contract as for more senior staff members. I'm sure if she was ever to leave there would be some negotiation to be had.

It does say they may be flexible - or words to that effect - but at their discretion.

And no of course she isn't planning to leave but it's her first office role in the UK, she realises that living locally when she leaves here will be too expensive and she plans to return to Ukraine as soon as the war ends. So she is understandably worried about a three month notice period, and contemplating whether to take the role or look elsewhere. It seemed very long to me based on my experience and while I am very supportive of her efforts to find a job (believe me, I want her to be able to move on as much as she does...) I have a responsibility to her to highlight things that are out of the norm. Which this seems to be.

In practice a long notice period on the employee is neither here nor there, no-one’s going to bother enforcing it and keeping in (and paying) an unwilling employee, but yes, it’s very strange to have an uneven arrangement with the employee being the one to have the longer notice period.

They won't enforce it, no one wants an employee working for them that doesn't want to be there especially when they have access to clients/confidential informations. Even if they do for some bizarre reason she can still leave without giving it. For an admin position they won't sue and the only downside would be them ticking the "would not remploy" box on a reference request.

Kind of yes, both my last roles being telephone based/low level call centre pretty much have been 1 month notice my side immediately from day 1 v's 1 week to no notice on an employers side from these same sectors during 'probation'.

4 weeks compared to an employees one week is a high difference. I only imagine it has come about because of the amount of people leaving on one week and less. Before this year most employers used to go with 1 week but I have noticed it creep up even in the lowest of call centre positions.

I don’t think the 12 week notice period is an issue generally, but I have never come across a notice period that is not the same for both parties and that, I would have an issue with.

Thanks everyone. I think it is probably fine - I don't see them enforcing it particularly for a junior role. I just found it odd and a bit unfair. But everything else looks completely fine so I tend to the view it is their standard contract.

By the time she is ready to move on, I hope she'll have the confidence and fluency in English to negotiate a shorter period if needed but even better would be that her dream of getting a Masters place next year somewhere comes true which would give her plenty of time to give notice.

Ask her to query it - sounds quite likely that they've altered a contract for a solicitor position where 12 weeks would be normal and forgotten to alter that bit.