Notice periods and ending a job

If your contract says nothing

Either side has to give at least this much notice, counted by how long you have been employed on the day the notice is given:

• Less than 2 years: 4 weeks' notice
• 2 years or more but less than 5 years: 6 weeks' notice
• 5 years or more: 8 weeks' notice

Employment Act s 12(2)

Either side can give up its right to notice.

Employment Act s 12(2)

Giving notice in writing

Either side can give notice at any time. Notice has to be in writing, and the day it is given counts as part of the notice period.

Employment Act s 12(1), (4)

If your job is cut or the business changes hands

Your employer must give you notice of at least the same 4, 6 or 8 weeks, whatever your contract says, when you lose your job wholly or mainly because:

• the employer has stopped, or intends to stop, the business you were employed for, either altogether or at the place you were contracted to work
• the need for your kind of work has ended or fallen, or is expected to
• you refused a transfer to another place your contract did not require you to accept
• the ownership of the business, or of part of it, has changed

Employment Act s 12(3)

Paying instead of working it

Either side can end the contract without notice, or without waiting for notice already given to run out, by paying the other the wages the employee would have earned during the notice period, or during what is left of it.

Employment Act s 13(1)

Either side can also end the contract without notice if the other wilfully breaks a condition of it.

Employment Act s 13(2)

Your last pay

When your contract ends after notice under section 12, the wages you have earned and not yet been paid, less lawful deductions, must be paid no later than the day it ends.

Employment Act s 20

Dismissal for misconduct

After due inquiry, an employer can dismiss an employee without notice, downgrade them, or impose a lesser punishment it considers just, on the grounds of misconduct inconsistent with the express or implied conditions of their service. A suspension without wages imposed as a punishment cannot be longer than 2 weeks.

Employment Act s 14(1)

For the inquiry, the employer can suspend the employee from work for up to 2 weeks, but has to pay at least half their wages for that time, and has to pay back the rest at once if the inquiry does not find misconduct.

Employment Act s 14(2)

An employee can end the contract without notice if they or their dependants are immediately threatened by danger to the person from violence or disease that their contract did not require them to face.

Employment Act s 14(3)

If you are not paid

The Director General can inquire into and decide a dispute between you and your employer about wages or other cash payments due under your contract or the Employment Act, and order your employer to pay the sum found just, with no limit on the amount.

Employment Act s 69(1)

An employer can also bring a claim there against an employee for the payment owed in place of notice.

Employment Act s 69(2)

The Director General can also confirm or set aside an employer's decision on misconduct, but only if the employee complains within 60 days from the date the decision was communicated to them.

Employment Act s 69(3)

If a dismissal is set aside, the employer can be ordered to pay only the indemnity in place of notice and the other payments the employee would have been entitled to had there been no misconduct. A lesser punishment that caused no loss of wages or other payments cannot be set aside.

Employment Act s 69(3)

The Director General cannot deal with a claim or dispute that is pending in an inquiry or proceeding under the Industrial Relations Act, has been decided by the Minister under section 20(3) of that Act, or has been referred to or is pending before the Industrial Court.

Employment Act s 69A