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Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

Are there actually countries where employees can't quit if they want to?

I've read in France you need to give a notice period to your employer thought they can waive it. Not sure what is the consequence if they just walked out.

https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/emcc/erm/legis...

Also I know from someone that worked in India that the employer would hold back some money which would be forfeited if they left without giving a notice period. Not sure how common that is.

Re: India. It’s very common. Large IT firms like Tech Mahindra, Cognizant etc do it. I had offers from a company where they wanted around 1 year salary of signed check. If I leave before 2 years, they use the check.

Some companies go a step ahead and keep your original documents (Degree certificate etc) so you can’t apply elsewhere after accepting offer. It’s ridiculous.

And probably should be illegal. For one, a notarized version is supposed to have the same weight as original. Unless this is mentioned in the contract, they cannot legally hold your personal belongings either.

> Not sure what is the consequence if they just walked out.

Typically you'd be charged by the company for the time you didn't work. Since you generally are owed money when you leave (like vacations, bonus, etc) they take it from there.

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/ending-employment/notice-and-fin...

Australia has pretty good laws around this :-)

Govt employees in India can't really quit at will. You need something called no objection certificate. For some reason that I don't understand, even software engineers give 1-2 months notice.

There is some letter SWEs need from their manager there - I can’t remember what they call it

There are places where you must give a certain amount of notice, some countries (Germany I think) expect people to change jobs at particular times of the year (like only at a quarter)

In France you have to stay for some time if you're resigning: https://www.welcometofrance.com/en/fiche/resignation

For example, IT consultants usually need to stay for around 3 months following their resignation.

It's the other side of the coin of strong employment laws that make it very hard for people with permanent positions to be let go, unlike the US.

Not sure what's the point of it though - if I am just slacking off those 3 months, what are they going to do, fire me? I see how it's good for me - I get 3 months paid vacation - but I don't see how it makes any sense for them. Looks like it's just a cost imposed on the employer, not something I have to do, but something they have to pay.

When I was working in France you legally had to give 3 months notice to quit. I think there are ways around this notice period in certain situations.

What happens if you just walk out? Any kind of penalty?

Financial penalties can apply: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https:/...

You get charged the equivalent of your salary for the missed days of work.

That's about 2 weeks worth of work in a US corporation, so seems reasonable. he

In the UK you must give 1 week's notice, but it is common for employment contracts to extend this to 1-3 months.

In Germany default regulation (§622 BGB) is 4 weeks towards 15th or last day of month, but I've seen 2 or 3 months contracts, for senior management even 6 months (rare though). Often the first 6 months of employment are on probation and only 2 weeks notice are neccessary.

Yes, I think I have a months notice... By law.

I'm not sure what the consequences would be if I didn't show up though... maybe my employer could sue me to get back the salary they had to pay me, while I didn't work as the contact stated I would.

I'm assuming working for the military can count. Either enlisted, or under contract after they paid for school. In the latter you can leave but you owe them money.

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