As with many questions regarding Canadian law, the answer is dependent on the province. It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed the Ontario employment laws (and I’m not about to now), but the last time I did, I did not notice anything about “one pay period.” Similarly, I don’t recall anything like that in Alberta’s employment laws.
In practice, if one wants to resign their position, two weeks’ notice is traditional and acceptable, no matter how long one has been employed or what the pay period is. A contract may vary this, but can never vary the terms below the minimum standards established by the employment laws.
“One week per year” as a minimum severance is often thought of as standard, but it is by no means set in stone in all provinces. Alberta, for example, has a sliding scale (one week for a year’s service, two weeks for two years’ service, but just ten weeks for twenty years’ or more service, as I recall). And of course, this is all shaped by caselaw regarding dismissals and severance: Wallace v. United Grain Growers 1997 CanLII 332, [1997] 3 SCR 701, was mostly overturned by Honda Canada Inc v Keays 2008 SCC 39, [2008] 2 SCR 362, though some of the Wallace provisions continue to influence judicial decisions. In other words, it’s complicated. Very complicated.
As you might have guessed, IAA Canadian (Albertan, specifically) L, and I’ve practiced in the employment area for some years.
In the UK it tends to vary a lot, according to seniority and how hard the company thinks you’ll be to replace; it’s normally in your contract. If it isn’t, I think the default is two weeks, but the only real risk from just up and quitting from that kind of job is that they might refuse to give a reference, or give a crap one.
I know one of my - now former- co-workers, who left this week, had a two month notice. His line manager mentioned at the time that, although she did actually know he was planning on it, it’d caught her a bit unprepared 'cos she’d thought it was three months, because that’s what her contract said. Meanwhile in my less important role I’m on like 2 weeks notice and though it’s supposed to go up after annually it maxes out at 4 weeks, iirc. That’s college teacher, head of department and tech.
In The UK, it is entirely dependant on the contract you have with your employer.
The only government rule is that you must give/receive a week’s notice if you’ve been working more than a month.
Beyond that, it depends on the company and your seniority. Most office jobs stipulate one months’ notice, rising to 3 months when you’re in a management position (I’m on 3 months notice). This is because it can (a) take a long time to recruit someone at a senior level and (b) it often requires a long handover period to minimise disruption.
In reality, companies and their employees often come to some sort of agreement on leaving earlier, particularly if the employee is going to a competitor.
Redundancy? You get 3 months pay, tax free (or whatever notice your contract says) and often aren’t expected to work it but the company can make you if they want to.
If the contract of employment is silent on the subject, an employee can leave without notice in the first 13 weeks of service, but thereafter must give at least one week’s notice (unless the employer agrees to accept less). The contract may stipulate a longer minimum notice period and, the more senior an employee is, the more likely the contract is to do so. It’s quite common for managerial employees or senior professionals to have long notice periods stipulated in the contract, but for shorter notice to be negotiated in practice; the employer seeks to balance the inconvenience/disruption generated by your departure against not having a disgruntled and disaffected employee hanging around.
If the termination is initiated by the employer, then longer minimum notice periods apply, depending on length of service - one week for an employee with up to 2 years’ service, rising to 8 weeks for an employee with more than 15 years’ service. Again, the contract of employment can stipulate a longer period. If the employer initiates the termination there is quite a high likelihood that he will pay out a long notice period (i.e. pay your wages for the period, but treat you as immediately terminated) - the concern about disgruntled/disaffected employees is particularly strong in this circumstance.
If a longer period is stipulated, it is usually stipulated on both sides - i.e. if the employee has to give at least 3 months’ notice, then so does the employer.
Also in South Africa - at a previous job I also gave six weeks. At my current job my required notice has gone from 1 month when I started to 3 months now that I’m in senior management (although when other senior management resigned much of their notice period was waived for pragmatic reasons).
The law in South Africa sets a minimum notice of one week during the first month of employment, two weeks during the rest of the first year of employment, and four weeks after the first year. A longer notice period can be set by contract, but the notice period required from the employer must always be at least as long as that required from the employee. The employer may give pay in lieu of notice. In the case of a resignation the employer and employee can agree to waive part of the notice period.
Germany, the standard is ‚four weeks to the end of the quarter‘ for both sides, after the six months‘ initial trial period. According to the civil code the notice period increases with length of employment. I have a 7 months‘ notice period (after > 25 years of employment). Contracts may stipulate a shorter notice period for the employee than for the employer but not the other way round.
Dismissal without a notice period is only possible for grave offences (stealing, or insulting someone, etc.)
That‘s why many companies hire temporary workers from temporary-work firms if they are not sure if they will employ someone indefinitely. The worker is employed by the temporary-work company but hired out to the place of work; the place of work can terminate the contract in short order but the worker stays employed.
When I worked in a university in the UK, it was subject to a three-month notice period from the employee, and that wasn’t uncommon in public service careers. But in, say, some sorts of finance businesses, if you wanted to leave, you might have to leave on the spot and be subject to all sorts of conditions to stop you poaching clients or taking company secrets with you.
Conversely, employers’ notice to an employee is up to a maximum of 12 weeks (if you have worked there for 12 years or more), or one week for every year between 2 and 12 years you have worked there, with an absolute minimum of one week. But that is, in effect, for the calculation of redundancy pay - the practical realities of when you physically stop going in are by agreement. And employers do find ways round some of this by offering short-term contracts or other forms of casual employment. One of the objections to the likes of Uber and other “disruptors” is that they try to undermine employees’ protections by calling them self-employed sub-contractors, even if the terms and conditions are so restrictive as to be little different from (or less generous than) full-time employment.
Obviously none of this applies in serious disciplinary cases. I can remember one of my colleagues in university administration who was out of the door on the spot when he was caught taking bribes from contractors. Otherwise, there are statutory requirements for formal dismissal procedures, whether for economic redundancy or unsatisfactory performance.
I had one job where I gave notice because I spent most of my time sitting around waiting for the boss to find something for me to do. He still demanded that I stay a full 2 weeks after giving notice. In that period, I think I was assigned about 3 hours of work. I should have just walked.
For my last job, I did give a year’s notice, but I was planning to retire, plus I asked to be made part time for that last year. Up until the last month, they didn’t believe I was going to go. The last couple of weeks were a panic, trying to get as much out of me as they could.
We were just discussing this yesterday in the office, about hiring engineers in our Bangalore, India office. While not everyone does it, most folks do give 3 months notice. That means while hiring you often have a long wait before being able to on board a new hire since they start looking for a new job before they give notice. And during that 3 month period many of their current employers entice them to stay with more pay, meaning we have to start the search all over again.
I once had someone quit, as in, “I got a better job, so long”. I asked if she was giving any notice and she told me I’d notice she was gone tomorrow. So, fine, I sat down and reworked the schedule.
The next morning she shows up for work. I told her she’d quit. She explains that her new job fell through. I explained that there were no take backsies with quitting, so she needed to go away. She asked if I hired her replacement, and if I could just rehire her. I explained that since she quit with no notice she was not eligible for rehire. She had a temper tantrum (tears, yelling).
A few days later was a payday, so I mailed her check. The check came back as a bad address. I didn’t know if she supplied a bad address or had moved, but I figured she’d call, so the envelope went into her file.
A few weeks later I get notice she’d filed for unemployment compensation. I filed an objection to her claim, which I eventually won.
A few months later I’m handing out tax stuff (W-2s?). I have one for her but only have her old, bad, address. I mailed it to the bad address so that I’d have proof I attempted to send it to her. To this day the returned paycheck and returned tax stuff remain in her employee file. It’s been four years now.
Three months seems really, really long… I get if you’re transferring internally, especially if your replacement needs a lot of training time. But is three months the standard that’s expected in those countries? Here, there’s no way a company would wait around replacement-less for 3 months when they could probably find someone currently unemployed.
I HAVE given longer notice before, when available. I told my first job at a vet clinic (loved it - I was there for something like 7 years) that I decided to quit at the end of the summer, giving them a few months. I ended up going back there when I later decided I wanted more hours than my 2nd job was giving me. But when something comes up more suddenly, I think 2 weeks is a fair amount.
Last time I quit a job (back in the mid 80’s), I gave a 2 week notice to the owner of the company. He said he hated to see me go and shook my hand. The guy that ran the company fired me 15 minutes later, called me a traitor. Didn’t bother me, I was going from an $8 an hour job to a $27 an hour job. The 2 weeks off was rather refreshing.
In Spain (and I think most of Western Europe) it’s usually 1 month. Often, long-term contracts include a “trial period” during which the notice period required is shorter.
Last time I quit a job it was with the 1 month warning required by my contract (job in the UK, contract under Irish law). The American boss’s response was “don’t bother come in tomorrow!”, but then, his general attitude was the reason I was leaving.
We had some co-workers in Poland, and they had to give 3 months notice. I assume (but it’s just a WAG) that if the employer is going to terminate you, they also have to give 3 months. But that’s a guess.
