When employers give notice




The minimum notice an employer must give an employee depends on how long they have been employed and is as follows: 




• 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; or




• a maximum of 12 weeks if they have at least 12 years’ service.




The right to notice or notice pay is lost if the employee fundamentally breaches the employment contract by engaging in gross misconduct (known as summary dismissal). See page 329. 




It is a breach of contract for the employer not to give the full contractual notice and the employee can claim their notice pay in an employment tribunal or the civil court. No service is needed for this type of claim, which is also known as a claim for “wrongful dismissal”. 




Where an employee is dismissed (other than for gross misconduct) without being given their full statutory notice, the notice that should have been given will be added to their period of continuous employment (see page 351) for the purposes of an unfair dismissal claim. This rule applies to statutory but not contractual notice.




Employers must always use clear language when giving notice (Societe Generale v Geys [2012] UKSC 63). Members must make sure they understand clearly the date on which notice has been given, taking early advice from union solicitors if they are unsure. This date impacts on the “effective date of termination” (EDT), used to calculate whether a claim has been brought in time (see page 347).