Notice Period

[Lisa-Jane]

Good Morning,

The Organisation I work for has decided to implement a new policy regarding employees who do not work their full notice period. The Organisation has decided to deduct Annual Leave from the employee to cover the notice period they did not work.

My superiors are implementing this policy across the board, for employees on awards and for those employees on contracts.

I have had several people approach me stating that they believe this is illegal.

Is anyone able to point me in the right direction regarding where I can go to determine if this is legal?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Lisa-Jane.

[Ms_HR]

Hi lisa-jane

with most notice periods it is usually included to cover for provisions of terminations/resignations in lieu of notice ie. if the employer terminates the employer they may pay out a 2 week notice period instead of the employee working for that period.

In my previous roles we have had clauses that look at people being deducted for resignations in lieu of notice however they were never enforced.
It does get a little murky when you are looking at deducting people's entitlements etc.

Best thing would be to contact the Workplace Infoline 1300 363 264 just to get some clarification about the legislation.

Hope this helps

Ms_HR

[Lisa-Jane]

Hi Ms_HR,

Thank you. I will give the infoline a call.

Regards,

Lisa-Jane.

[HRbeat]

Just letting you know that our employees who decide not to work the full notice period actually apply to take their annual leave. It is therefore not enforced top-down and is of a voluntary nature from the employee.

We are also flexible in that employees can negotiate their notice period with us at the time of resignation looking at personal and business requirements, where discussions are in the context of our policy.

[Regional ER]

My understanding is that leave entitlements are sacrosanct and cannot be deducted without a leave application from the employee. I think the only avenue of redress is through the courts for breech of the award or contract but as this is a costly and protracted process it is rarely used..

[Jodie]

I am reviewing our policy regarding how we handle employee's who resign to commence employment with a competitor company. Currently our position is to ask the person to finish up immediately and we pay out the required notice period. I am interested to understand how other organisations handle this situation?