Employees owe their employers a notice period when intending to quit, just as an employer owes an employee notice when seeking to terminate an employee. This ensures each party has time to adjust to changes without suffering too much hardship. When an employee submits a notice period that is considerably lengthy, however, employers may wish to end the notice period early. There are a few things for employers to consider when faced with this situation.
An employer cannot end the employment relation immediately after receiving a notice to quit from an employee. In particular, when receiving a lengthy notice, such as 3 months, for instance,  employers that dismiss an employee early may be faced with litigation for wrongful dismissal. Absent of a termination clause within the employee’s employment contract, employers must give ‘reasonable notice’ established through common law in order to end a lengthy notice period given by an employee. Common law considers the employee’s length of employment, skill level, whether or not they were in a managerial position, and so on. The intent of reasonable notice is to allow the employee enough notice time to gain comparable employment, which is why senior, highly skilled employees will be owed more notice than lesser skilled employees. Employers seeking to shorten a lengthy notice period given by an employee, therefore, absent of a termination clause, must offer common law notice of termination or pay in lieu to end the employee’s notice period early. It is important to ask an employment lawyer what an appropriate length of notice would be, as each scenario will vary in accordance to the facts.
Much of this uncertainty may be avoided if the employee is subject to a termination clause within their employment contract. It is advisable to have a legal expert draft such clauses, as it must comply with minimal standards legislation to be enforceable. If found unenforceable, common law notice will apply.