Period of notice

Q: How much notice do employees have to give if they want to resign?

A: You need to check the contractual position. This means looking at what is written in the contract of employment documents. If nothing is written down, check whether there has been any verbal agreement about notice periods. If nothing was expressly agreed, there may be a well known notice period which operates across the workforce by custom and practice.

Subject to any greater contractual obligation, there is a statutory minimum — an employee employed for one month or more must give at least one week’s notice. However, an employee does not have to give any notice if they resign because their employer is in fundamental breach of contract.