Disclaimer: I take responsibility for not researching enough and not requiring everything in writing, so I am not saying I legally should be paid, but I just wanted to share this story where my ex-employer clearly did not act in good faith.
So I was let go end of September. I live in an European country, where you have a 3 month notice period if employer terminates my employment. It is 1 month if an employee gives notice.
I have lived in this country for two years, so I definitely am not familiar with all the details of the employment law. My employment contract follows a spesific law for white-collar workers, so the contract itself does not spesify all the terms but refers back to the law.
Anyway, my managers (owners of the company) let me go over a video call, and said that if I wish to quit working straight away I can do so and they will just pay me for the notice period. But I could also choose to keep working as long as I want to (within the notice period), for example until I find a new job. They told me to think about it for a day or so. After the call I got the termination letter via email, to which I replier asking to confirm if that notice period as per the law is 3 months. To this I got the reply ”this is absolutely correct, your last day of salary from X is Dec 31st 2022.”
Well, because I loved my team and knew firsthand how pressed they were with everything, I offered to stay to finish certain projects and to hand over my tasks to the team, but if I found a new job quickly I would leave earlier.
I found a new job end of October, which was set to start 1st of december. I notified my employer that I got a new job so I would quit by end of november or sooner. My boss just wrote back to congratulate on the new job and to make sure the handovers are done. So all good. I leave, start my new job expecting to still be paid from the old job in December.
Never got that salary for December. Wrote to my ex-boss to ask about it, and they replied I have misunderstood the law, I am not entitled to full 3 months pay because I left one month earlier.
So, turns out the white-collar employee law states that if a company fires you and relieves from your work duties immediately, you are automatically entitled by very minimum to get your normal salary for 3 months even if you start working in a new job during the period. And when my boss said I don’t have to keep working if I don’t want to, I assumed that I was relieved from my duties. But since I decided to keep working, they chose to take my notification of a new job in October as a counter-notice, meaning the notice period is only 1 month (so until end of November).
Never at any point did they communicate that my rights for salary are different based on if I keep working or not. Had this been clear, of course I would have chosen to stop working immediately and gotten my 3 months pay. But because I chose to be a good sport for my team, I get punished. This was clearly a very intentional strategy from them – they trusted me as a foreigner to not know my rights, and chose not to tell me so I would make the choice that would benefit then more. Their ass is always covered since the contract says that terms of termination follow the white-collar employee law.
As I said, my fault not doing my research and not demanding everything that was said in writing, but damn. That was a savage move from my ex-employer.
Luckily my new job is a way better company, with a higher salary and better benefits.
Edit: I was let go because they were getting rid of my position, giving the tasks to existing team and partly outsourcing. if that has any relevance.