Compensation due to resignation- need legal advice

I had to leave Hong Kong urgently due to personal reasons. Told my manager about it and was told that they had to terminate my contract because I didn't know when I was coming back. Is this a valid reason for termination anyway?


Anyway I then proposed to resign instead of termination, otherwise my reference would be affected. They agreed and made me email them the resignation letter. Very importantly I also offered at this point in time to serve notice but was told that this wasn't an option and I had to leave immediately. Therefore during all this time, I was under the impression that the notice period would be waived since my manager also never mentioned that I had to compensate for this notice period.


I went back to my home country and tried to settle the personal issues I had. During this time, another division of the company contacted me for another job opportunity located in China. I initially rejected it since I had to solve these personal issues (I have this in writing). Very unexpectedly I managed to solve the issues very quickly and informed my ex-boss about it and also proceeded on to explore the new job opportunity further.


After informing my ex-boss that I would also be exploring another opportunity in another division of the company, shortly after I got informed that I would have to compensate the 3 months notice and also the HR dept (original division) proceeded to almost tell the other HR dept (new job opp) not to hire me because of the 'irresponsible' way I handed the resignation matter.


I would like to seek your legal advice as to whether I have a case on the following issue in terms of compensation of the notice period.

[UPDATE] Please note that fee quotes stated in historic postings may be out-of-date.


An employment contract is terminated when an employee resigns from the company. An employee can resign by giving notice or by making a payment in lieu of notice. The notice period to be served should be as per the contractual terms. In the absence of such terms, the Employment Ordinance’s stipulations will apply. There are certain circumstances under which the employee can terminate the contract without giving notice or paying wages in lieu of notice such as ‘constructive dismissal’ or on medical grounds, etc. From your comments it would appear that you have not been properly compensated for your notice. You can seek free advice from the Labour Tribunal before approaching your employer; alternatively contact a solicitor.


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