Dismissal with notice

Under section 86 of the ERA 96, employee and employer have statutory rights to minimum amounts of notice if the contract is terminated.

Employees’ minimum statutory entitlement to notice

An employee is entitled to notice of at least:

• one week, if their length of service is between one month and two years; or

• one week for each year if they have between two and 12 years’ service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks, if they have at least 12 years’ service.

Employees’ minimum statutory obligation to give notice

The minimum statutory notice an employee must give the employer is one week, although the employment contract can (and often does) provide for longer notice. If the employee gives insufficient notice, this will be a breach of contract. However, the employer is not entitled to withhold outstanding wages unless the contract allows this. Any contract term must be clear and unambiguous and must have been agreed to in advance by the employee, usually by signing the contract (Sands-Ellison v Call Insurance EAT/0002/02/ST).