Notice period different

TCPPC

I recently received a contract where the notice periods for employees and the employer differ. Following the probation period, I'm required to give a three-month notice, whereas the employer only needs to give me one week's notice for each year of service. This arrangement strikes me as somewhat unfair. Has anyone else encountered a similar situation? This is a public sector role, I have been working in private sector all my life so this is quite unusual for me. Everywhere i have been is match period

Undervalued

TCPPC said:

I recently received a contract where the notice periods for employees and the employer differ. Following the probation period, I'm required to give a three-month notice, whereas the employer only needs to give me one week's notice for each year of service. This arrangement strikes me as somewhat unfair. Has anyone else encountered a similar situation? This is a public sector role, I have been working in private sector all my life so this is quite unusual for me.

"Unfair" maybe but perfectly lawful and not uncommon.

TCPPC

In no way am i saying its unlawful purely employment contract should be fair but hey if this is the typical public sector contract then what can i say.

moneysaver1978

Not just in the public sector but also in the private sector with similar terms.

Undervalued

TCPPC said:

In no way am i saying its unlawful purely employment contract should be fair but hey if this is the typical public sector contract then what can i say.

You could argue that the law is unfair. If no notice period is specified in the contract then the legal default applies which is that an employee only has to give a week's notice regardless of their length of service. The employer on the other hand has to give one week for each year of service (up to a maximum of 12). Any contract term that tried to reduce this would be unlawful. Any contract term that required more notice would however be valid.

LinLui

TCPPC said:

In no way am i saying its unlawful purely employment contract should be fair but hey if this is the typical public sector contract then what can i say.

To be fair, I have never come across this in the public sector and that's over 40 years of service. In my experience the norm is that notice periods are equal. I can't say that is the case everywhere, but as I said, in my experience that would not be typical.