Handing in notice while on parental leave

nimrod_himself

Hey,
Quick question. Can I hand in my notice during a pre-agreed period of unpaid parental leave without repercussion?
My employer has a track record of treating its employees like pariahs once they hand in their leave. I'd rather not be around here during my notice period if at all possible.
Thanks for any advice.

cherl

As far as I know, there is no law stating that you can only tender your resignation at certain times and not at others. So the next thing to check would be your company's HR policies to see if your situation might incur any consequences (such as forfeit of unused annual leave days etc?). Also, is your manager someone reasonable who would ensure you are not disadvantaged in any way when you hand in your notice? Just some ideas, sorry can't be anymore specific.

Agent_99

I did this after my second was born, I gave them 1 month notices which was unpaid and they terminated me there and then leaving me high and dry without health cover. Then again they were particularly vindictive during my pregnancy as I could not travel abroad due to high blood pressure.
(I was not paid maternity leave from them only SW payment)
If you were paid maternity you may have a clause in your contract requiring you to pay it back if you do not return.

nimrod_himself

Thanks for the reply guys,
I work for a multinational that has reams of HR policies but I can't find anything specific enough to nail this down. I'm a man so no issue with maternity pay. I'm not too bothered about losing annual leave days. I just want to be sure that if I'm on parental leave that they aren't likely to reject my resignation until I come back or try to force me to work out my notice period. It's unlikely though. They treat people with disdain once they hand in notice so it would probably suit them to have me off site.

whomitconcerns

you have to be an active employee (ie not on leave) to hand in your notice. (at least in the multinat I work for). While in practice you could send in your notice now it would only take effect from the day you are actually back in the company. But of course they could waive that,

Bandana boy

the purpose of notice is to allow the company to plan for your leaving
If they have already made plans to cover you when off ,I expect they will let you finish up now with no notice ,but if there is anything they need you to do a hand over on expect them to insist you work your notice.

cherl

Hi Nimrod_Himself, I just read Whomitconcerns' comments and I agree with them... You need to check with your HR department if you need to be an active member of staff (as opposed to being on unpaid parental leave) in order to have your letter of resignation accepted immediately. But it is still possible that your management may still expect you to serve your notice period in full, especially if your stand-in was really meant as a temporary measure only. There may still be issues related to handing down of your work blah blah blah....

Stheno

I've seen this happen in this situation and no rights were affected.

It does leave a bad taste in the mouths of employers though