Notice period for resignation

[Nerfherder]

So as some of you might have gathered I have been trying to move to Capetown.

I informed my current employer of this last year Oct/Nov but did not resign. Then about a month later they offered to transfer me down and we made a verbal agreement. I had been looking for positions in Capetown already and decided to hold back as I had a few interviews and the process was taking up a lot of my time. Anyway I did the two interviews and nothing came of them, so I decided to just take the transfer. My company has been messing me around for quite a while and nows its January and they have only now come foward with a proposal for me to move down. I have to take a pay cut and will only be able to go down on the 1st of March.
My wife has been down in the Cape since the end of December and its reall not fun living apart. She is getting lonely and sad (as am I).

To make matters worse things have just gone sour with the current customer that we are with. They are under the impression that there is no more work for us to do here, our management now thinks that we are messing around all day. Its actually the oppiste and we are swamped and its getting worse. All of a sudden I'm the bad guy who does not work.
Then I hear that my replacement is only going to start on the 1st of March, this means that I will have to hand over and still get training before I can go down... meaning 1st of April is more likely the earliest I can move down !!!!

I'm about to lose my cool, people are still sending me invites for interviews and i'm ready to just tell my current employer to get stuffed. I never gave them formal notice but I did inform them and they did come up with a counter offer.

Is there no way I can resign imediately ? (Provided some one offers me a job)

 

[syntax]

How long have you been at you current employer?
Without formal notice you are screwed.
Standard notice periods apply according to BCEA unless your contract stipulates otherwise and you have both agreed to new notice terms.

 

[Nerfherder]

4 years.

What can they do if I just leave ?

 

[syntax]

You need to give a month unless your contract specifically stipulates otherwise.

They can sue you for Breach of contract and possibly also sue for any "business" damages you might have caused.
It will also ruin any kind of reference you might want from them, and on a C.V. where you worked for 4 years, it would be nice to have a good reference from that place.

 

[Y'all Qaeda]

Um. You were looking at leaving them, while keeping them on a line when they offered to move you. I'm sorry but someone has to say this:"Karma is a bitch"