I’ve been offered a new job, and my new employer would like me to start asap.
Technically I have a four week notice period however:
– during my employment, my actual employer has changed – the original employer transferred staff to a new company before folding. I wasn’t officially TUPE’d over as I’ve never had any formal notice of it
– I’m not actually convinced my employer would pay me my final wage if given notice – two other employees were let go and spent months chasing final wage and expenses going back several months.

I’m currently due about £400 in expenses (March and April to date), and about 5 days accrued annual leave.

If I can persuade me employer to pay my March expenses before the end of this month, then leave, I can start a new job straight after and lose no money apart from accrued holidays. If I give notice on Monday, I think I’m likely to end up with two weeks pay to end of April, then working for a week in May for nothing, take my holiday as the final week notice and start new job then. I’m unlikely, going on past experience, going to get any of my expenses paid that way either.

One other consideration is that my new job requires a 5 year background check for security clearance – I could provide my colleagues details (project manager and my superior although not line manager) for this (having already discussed the possibility with him, he has advised he probably wouldn’t work notice so no conflict of interest there).

It may influence your thoughts to here that the company has just given up the lease on the office unit we were working from (heating installation), and currently have no fixed abode. My boss and the ops director have decided to take another office about 150miles away along with a new employee who will be working on projects unrelated to the currently ‘homeless’ employees I work with. Working with accounts admin I am aware that although we have continuing cash flow problems, £7.5k has just been spent on projects again unrelated to our currently ‘homeless’ business ( out of monthly £30k turnover). Our boss has history of asset stripping/moving capital before bumping businesses – basically every month for the last year has been a game of ‘will we actually get paid?’.

I guess I’m trying to work out what is the best way of getting out while covering my own back, while remaining in a good light with the new employer regarding references, security checks etc.

think about the big picture.
try and get your expenses paid and book your annual leave for just before you go.
Then simply give notice and start working for your new company – don’t look back

?very few situations where I would consider leaving without notice. This however, might be one of them.

In your situation I think I’d leave. Give the company fair time to pay your expenses, (last pay cheque date + a couple of weeks worth of phone calls and e-mails) then start small claims court proceedings if still not settled. Make sure you have copies of receipts and claims forms before you leave.

Yeah about that 400 expenses and 5 days accrued leave……..

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myZU2DZoD9w[/video]

Depends if there’s a professional regulator involved. If I resigned and didn’t work my notice, the GMC would be sad.

SC shouldn’t be related to your former employer, focuses on you, your liabilities and risk around breaking the official secrets act.

Always leave on good terms – you never know 🙂

No professional regulator involved (if there was, I’d be less concerned that I wouldn’t be paid for my notice period).

@ chunky – I know… My wife would pimp me out before I’d be going back to my current job!

Pish for the expenses (plead hardship etc can’t do anymore until they are paid) if they cant/won’t hand in notice anyway as it’s not coming. Either way I’d be tempted to lay it out straight that you want paid weekly for your notice and won’t be accruing any more expenses as they have a history of not paying.
Then you have the 400 quid and I go away option.

Any sense in just having a straightforward discussion with your boss:

“I realise you have cash flow issues, I have a job offer, and you wouldn’t need to pay notice (but here’s my £400 expense claim).”

He might actually appreciate it!

How long will the security check take? Can you start without completing the process?
Is it a 5 year security check, or 5 years of references, sickness records, etc AND a security check?
Will you get a formal job offer / contract without the above?
Is redundancy (sadly) a possibility?
Bottom line: Should you be resigning yet?

If it’s a proper government security clearance check that can easily take 4-8 weeks, longer if all of your background is 100% normal (no dead estranged parents, spouse from overseas etc).

Will you need a formal reference from your old job for the new one? A lot of job offers will be “subject to references” in the written contract.

If SC is an absolute requirement of your new role, I wouldn’t be resigning until I was cleared. And as others have said, it can, and does often take several months to come though.

Basic is often very quick, as that’s pretty much just a CRB check, but SC is involved, and DV takes forever.

Security clearance is a five year check for the intruder alarm industry. New employer isn’t expecting a delay (checks completed by a 3rd party supplier).

Ah, so it’s just Basic or Baseline then. ‘Security Cleared’ is a very different thing. Reasonable description here.

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/security-clearance/Types%20of%20national%20security%20clearance

Yes

Cheers bensales, puts my mind at rest about that one

Someone mentioned redundancy up there – not likely to be an option. Going on previous form, any remaining business assets would be transferred to one or both of the other two new companies he has recently set up (via invoicing for ‘work’ done), then the company liquidated. With bills owed in excess of £80k to major suppliers, wages won’t hit the administrators list. Employees would then be offered employment in the new company – in this case probably only if willing to relocate/fund own travel/sub-contract themselves on 60day invoices…