In America absolutely nothing happens. He might have some type of agreement where he gets a severance payment upon resignation, that would be forfeited. If I was him, assuming upper management starts yelling or whatever, I would just leave. Stress can kill you, and stressing over a job is absolutely never worth it because if you die today , they'll post a req for your position by the end of business.

It looks like they could probably sort something out, wouldn't be a bad idea to call up any of the old vets who retired to see if they could come down to the office and contract for a week or so.