Employees who want to leave their job commonly need legal advice in one or two situations:-
- 1. They want to leave because of the way they have been treated by their employer
- 2. They want to leave but their contracts of employment restrict what they may and may not do after they leave that job.
Leaving because you are unhappy at how you are being treated
Looking at the first of these, if an employer has treated you so badly that you feel that you have no option but to resign, you may well have a claim for what is called "constructive dismissal”, in which you are effectively saying that you have been forced out.
Such claims are not easy to bring though. The onus is on the employee to prove that the employer has committed a fundamental breach of one or more important terms of the contract of employment, that the employee has left because of that breach, and that the employee has not delayed too long before resigning. Employees who resign too quickly saying they have been forced out and claim constructive dismissal run the risk of not being able to succeed in the claim they then bring.
If you feel that things are being made so bad for you at work that it is making you want to leave, please speak to us first - once we have listened to you we will be able to guide you as to whether, if you did resign, you would have a strong case against your employer for constructive dismissal.
Our legal advice to you would include whether you should try to resolve matters before resigning, in particular whether you should submit a written grievance first - see the section on lodging grievances - as it can harm your case if you have not done that first.
Employees who want to leave because they are unhappy are often left in something of a quandary when it comes to whether a written grievance should be lodged. If you don't lodge a grievance, you may suffer a reduction in compensation if you then bring a successful claim for constructive dismissal, and if you if you do submit a grievance, the employer might try to correct matters or try to put its house in order, making any subsequent claim more difficult to establish. It may be that in fact that is all you want, so that a written grievance may solve the problem that is making you want to leave.
Restrictions on you after you have left
In the second situation referred to above, your employment contract may contain restrictions (called "restrictive covenants”) on you that continue to bind you even though you have left the company.
There may be a duty on you not to use confidential information that you have seen whilst you were at the company. You may be forbidden from contacting customers or clients of your last employer. Even if those customers or clients contact you, you may be forbidden from doing any work for them.
Your employer has rights to protect them if you breach any of these restrictions after you have left them.
If you plan to leave a company you need to understand fully what you can and cannot do and what risks you run if you breach any restrictive covenants that you entered into when you signed that employment contract.
If you breach any such restrictions, your employer may be entitled to take court action against you. Such action would usually include a claim for an immediate injunction to stop you doing what you are doing, and a claim against you for money to cover the losses your employer can prove he lost because of your actions. Your employer may also want to carry out a search of your home computer and its contents, and there would also be a claim against you for the very substantial legal costs that the employer was put to to take this action.
If all of this occurs at a time when you are trying to concentrate on a new job or set up a new business, this is stress and legal expense that you can do without.
Darbys' Employment Team has substantial experience in advising employees in such situations, helping you to avoid traps and freeing you up to achieve your personal and commercial objectives.
As we say, we are always there for people and families who are in our PURPLE LEGAL scheme. We invite you to join PURPLE LEGAL now. By joining PURPLE LEGAL, you can have all your legal enquiries answered free of charge by simply booking a SolicitorSlot for a time and date that suits you. Alternatively if you wish to speak to us now, please click on "Please Contact Me Now” or call us on 0845 567 5000. We look forward to always being there for you.
