In reply to danj1974:
It is quite common to ask employees to work a longer notice period than the employer is prepared to give. This is especially so where personnel are harder to replace or need a skill which takes a long time to get up and running in the workplace.
Excepting statutory notice from the employer notice periods are entirely contractual. As with all contracts, written or not, by turning up to work the law deems you to have agreed to the terms of a contract. There is no such thing in employment law terms as 'working under protest'.
But there is a twist entirely in favour of the employee:_
If the employer does not give the right contractual notice and/or pay, the employee can eventually take the employer to a tribunal. Here the matter will be decided and if found in favour of the employee, the ex employer will have to pay up.
BUT:-
If the employee does not give the right contractual notice and simply walks out there is little the ex employer can do. Why? For the simple reason that you cannot under law enforce or make an employee work when they have decided they no longer wish to be bound by a contract of employment.
A common belief is that an employer can alternatively, sue for loss or breach of contract (in the same way the employee can). This is true but impractical for an employer.
a) The employer would have to show a financial loss directly as a result of the employee leaving without giving the required notice. Unless you are the sole salesman in a small business this would be hard to do!!
b) The employer would have to demonstrate that they attempted to mitigate their loss (by immediately attempting to recruit a replacement, appointing a substitute from existing staff and so on).
c) Even if the employer could show a loss directly as a result of the employee leaving a court would offset this against what would of happened had the employee given the correct notice. So if the employee was supposed to have given six weeks notice but left after one week, and the employer lost an attributable £3000 the court would decide how much the company would have lost in any case by the employee the correct notice and offset this against the £3000.
d) The final practical hurdle for the employer is then attempting to get any money from an employee who may not have it, and of course the costs associated with going to court and so on.
I have never, ever, heard of an employer succeeding in taking this kind of action against an ex employee, although I would suggest leaving without the correct notice may not get you a very glowing reference.!!