By Mark Namaswa,
Peter Otieno has worked in a Public Relations firm in Nairobi for the past five months. He recently got a county job in his rural home that requires him to travel back and report to work in two week’s time.
“My contract reads that I can only leave after giving my employer a month’s notice or ‘forfeit a month’s salary in lieu of notice’. What does that mean?” he asks.
Martin Githaiga HR Consultant – Corporate Staffing Services attempts to address Otieno’s dilemma:
“In lieu of’ means ‘instead of,” he says. “In your employment contract, there’s either a month’s, three weeks’, two weeks’ notice that you issue when you intend to leave; depending on the agreement you drafted,” says Mr. Githaiga.
“Some contracts come with an alternative; you either surrender your last month’s pay in exchange for leaving without notice or you get the full pay for that last month you worked by working all through the notice period.”
What portion of the pay is forfeited in lieu of notice, the gross salary, net pay or the entire pay with allowances? “Usually it is the gross salary,” says Mr. Githaiga. “Anything you earn that is taxable is supposed to be forfeited once you have decided to leave without giving the full notice.”
If you had drafted in your agreement a notice period of one month and the employee gives a notice period of just two weeks, is he forfeiting half the pay?
“In that case there are two options: first remember this is a written contract and doing something contrary to what is written amounts to breach of contractual terms,” he says “You can either give a shorter notice but bear in mind the number of leave days you will surrender in exchange for the notice period you will not be serving.
Every month an employee earns a total of 1.75 days as leave. This is 21 working days divided by the 12 months in a year. You can count the number of leave days you have accumulated to top up the remainder of the notice period.
The other option is of course the employee paying an amount equivalent to the notice period or working through the entire notice period.”
What is the case, say, if the employee was on probation?
“In case of probation then the notice period is usually shorter. The standard time is seven days’ notice.”
What happens when an employee just leaves without notice?
If you just leave minus issuing a notice, you risk having a bad reputation. If your future employers decide to get in touch with your former employers, they might come up with a bad review of you.
What should employees particularly keen on leaving a job look for regarding their terms of notice?
“Besides the days you are supposed to give as notice before leaving, also remember to calculate the number of leave days you have,” Mr. Githaiga advises. “These come in handy when you decide to leave on a shorter notice than what is stipulated in the employment contract.”
The post Resigning From Your Job? Understanding “Payment in lieu of Notice” appeared first on Career Point Kenya.Click on the TITLE link for the original.
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