Insufficient Notice period and threat to sue while abroad - what should I do?

[hambo]

2. you now want to squirm out of your contract and not give/pay the 6 month notice which is what you signed up for. think about it - what if you employer decided to terminate you and decide to only pay 1 month (instead of the requisite 6 months?).

Okay so I first want to clarify that it's not that I don't want to pay, it's just that I am unable to pay. I do not have any money nor a current job where I am able to work. They took all the money I saved, and my last month and a weeks pay. Only money I had during that period is the little I managed to save. I tried seeing if I could sell some of my things, but had to leave them back in hk.

I do agree with the 6 month notice period, but I thought this was bull with this company because they let another employee leave early without any consequence and are forcing me to pay.

[hambo]

@answerer I am a current dependent visa holder. For a few more years at least.

Yep probation was only 2 weeks.

And I do have more things to say about the "ill-treatment", however didn't want to post that onto here.

Thanks for your reply though!

[hambo]

@ MandM! Okay so I agree with your point about being sure about these things beforehand, however in the position I was in there was no way for me to know things would turn out this way. The company seemed to be good, during the first 2 weeks of probation everything seemed great. The employees seemed happy, the pay, the hours, the work. These revealed to be not so good a month later.

So yes, it was my fault I made a mistake in choosing the company.

[hambo]

@shri
Well you would have known the answer to your questions if you had read it , but it was 2 weeks and I owe $6,500USD.

I appreciate the fact you replied, however I am NOT crafting a post to lead people into giving me responses I want to hear. If you read my post completely you would've been able to see that I was trying to give as much information about my case so that the people who read it could understand the situation better.

In that case, I would've gotten more accurate responses and not have people ask me questions (because they want to understand the post more) rather make it available firsthand and have them reply about what they think.

Permanent residency - I wasn't sure if this would affect my record i.e. could I still apply with this as an issue, was asking others if they knew if this was possible, could I still apply or if this was out of the question now.
Age - immaturity, explaining my inexperience as well as my financial and current situation. The age influences how I could handle this i.e. talking to parents, family, or if I was older if I could take out more finance or a loan.
Overseas - I mentioned this because I wanted to explain how I am not currently in the country, also in school so working the money off is impossible, also mentioned it incase I may have to go to court and wanted to see if people knew whether they could sue me abroad, or get me deported, because I was anxious about that. Also how I can't fly back
Work Environment - Okay this may have been irrelevant, but I posted this anyways to help others understand what my boss is like. In turn hoping others would understand employer personality better and see if people think my employer would actually go for it with an unstructured business and how he runs things. Also goes into employer conduct.

But yes, not trying to be snobby or a bitch. Just want you and others to understand why I mentioned the things I did. Obviously when making a decision or giving feedback, having any and all information leads to better quality feedback - don't you think? Helps think of solutions too. So yeah, thanks for your reply anyways. It puts my mind at ease.

[hambo]

@shri Ok so I replied to this but that message disappeared. Anyways I was just saying how it is not a cry for sympathy. I was giving all that information because each thing was relevant to the case and understanding my employer, my situation, my potential options and my work.

getting a better grasp on a problem helps to form the best solutions right? What if I just said " getting sued in hk ". People would probably ask all the questions I already answered in my post.

But thanks for your reply regardless, it does put my mind at ease. Cheers.

[hambo]

Ignore them and let them chase you for the money LOL its all a threat to get you pay, they wont waste time and money on lawyers to get you to pay them back especially if your leaving town to go abroad for studies.

Oh and you wont get arrested or blocked from coming back into HK as its civil case.

Oof, good to hear!! Cheers

[hambo]

Firstly I hope you learned something from this. Like reading a contract before signing it. I do not feel bad for you and you are playing the victim. You leaving uproots their business and causes losses, doesn't matter if the company is disfunctional, that is up to you to figure out in the interview process and before joining.

Yes they can easily sue you via labour tribunal and win. @shri, There is no limit on how much they can sue for (this case follows labour tribunal -- no monetary caps -- which is cheap and no lawyers are allowed in the court -- albeit many employers hire lawyers to draft the complaint/response). You will have an outstanding liability. But on the other hand, your employer is not legally allowed to not pay your wages, it sounds like they withheld your last month's pay? You could file a complaint against them as well. Many directors have been put in jail for 14-30 days for doing this and then end up with a criminal record. It's up to you to file a complaint with the labour department and follow through insisting that they investigate the late/unpaid wages.

You'll both lose, but at least you would have hit them back. I would caution on this too as then the labour department would have your address and phone number. But if it goes to court I would also argue that too.

If you had a probation period, you could have resigned within the first 30 days and not owe any money, per employment ordinance rules.

You could choose to ignore it and hope it never comes back. Don't add fuel to the fire. Keep it quiet and move on.

It sounds like you are living in HK with your family and found a way out and left. Kind of does stupid, if the company has your address they might cause problems or annoyance to your family. To Western people, they can easily ignore but to Asians, they don't take kind to being bothered. Cultural differences.

When in doubt, call 1823 the city hotline 24 hours a day for answers.

Good pointers @MandM! I have definitely learnt a lesson from this. And yes, it was my bad for signing the contract when I was unsure. But in that position I thought I would've been working in HK for the rest of my days but I got the opportunity to study so I had to take it.

My probation period was 2 weeks, but thanks for the other info. It's good to know. Cheers.

[hambo]

Original Post Deleted

Golden

[hambo]

lol really? so what would you say when an employer wants to terminate you, and doesn't want to pay your requisite notice period? or if the employer decides that the monthly salary is not sacrosanct and changes it at will... Works both ways doesn't it! Think about the BA HKG staff who are being layed off - i'm sure they would want a long notice period - 6 months, 12 months! The longer the better.

Btw, most people don't pay up the notice period but serve it out. the only reason why people pay is that your new employer desperately wants you to start ASAP and will buy out the notice period.

So this is how worst case it plays out

1. Employer files at Labour Tribunal
2. Depending on whether there is a determination of notice being served, Employer can get an in-absentia judgement from Labour Tribunal in their favour
3. Now it potentially gets fun:
a. Employer gets baliffs to come to your place to seize OPs possession, or
b. Employer goes file a writ of bankruptcy (this costs money, but nothing stopping them from being vindictive if they are really so evil)

So sure, I would hope that the issue would goes away, including writing to the employer to give them the impression it is not worth chasing OP down.

But if it really gets legal, that is the last thing you should advise OP to do. Legal problems don't just magically go away.

Anyway OP's concerns are
1. Will they get sued?
2. What are the consequences of being sued?

I'm afraid we can't answer if they will get sued. Only the employer knows that.

But now, as someone mentioned up thread, think the Employer has committed a Breach by illegally witholding wages. That could be your stick / ammunition in this dispute. THIS IS YOUR LEVERAGE (caveat with is this a witholding for IRD purposes for employee leaving HK- if you are a non-perm HKID you do need to get some Letter of Release or employer will withhold 1 month salary)

Thank you for the long and swift reply. It's all good information to bear in mind, most things people have mentioned and talked about on this post are things I didn't know about.

Question: Writing to employer? Would this be written from me and wouldn't this just give my employer my new address?

[shri]

My probation period was 2 weeks, but thanks for the other info. It's good to know. Cheers.

If your probation was 2 weeks, when did you give your verbal notice?