Many termination problems can be avoided at the pre-employment stage by proper selection processes, clearly conveyed expectations for the role, and careful drafting of the employment contract. Be careful in specifying what you want and expect when you hire new employees. Make sure you refer to termination of employment provisions in the contract, at least stating the agreed period of notice.
In addition, having well drafted policies in place is also an important first step. These policies, on a range of relevant workplace issues (including termination of employment), should be put in writing and made available to all relevant staff. Policies should flag any behaviour that would constitute a serious breach of the employment contract and indicate the consequences.
The best way to pull the necessary information together is to compile a policies and procedures manual. Keep a file and note the rules and practices you want followed in your business when recruitment and termination are concerned. Over time you will cover most of the important areas. You can use this approach to any aspect of your employee relations policies and procedures. You should not incorporate policies manuals into employment contracts; in fact, for a number of reasons, it is wise not to do so. All you need do is to make employees aware of all relevant policies and preferably maintain records concerning when employees were given the policy and / or underwent training relation to the policy.
Awards and agreements may also specifically cover issues relating to termination. Most commonly, notice periods and redundancy provisions are covered in such documents. (However, if the award or agreement notice provision is less generous to the employee than the scale noted below, or the notice set out in the contract of employment, the longer period should be applied.)
|
Employee’s Period of Continuous Service with the Employer |
Period of Notice |
|
Not more than 1 year |
1 week |
|
More than 1 year but not more than 3 years |
2 weeks |
|
More than 3 years but not more than 5 years |
3 weeks |
|
More than 5 years |
4 weeks |
NB. If the employee is over the age of 45 years and has completed at least 2 years of service, then the notice period must be increased by 1 week.
Many awards and enterprise agreements also provide that an employee terminated for reasons of inefficiency, neglect of duty, malingering or misconduct may preclude or alter the payment of certain entitlements on termination, eg long service leave.
Some of the most important correspondence an employer will ever send are those letters which are advising that an employee is in danger of losing his/her job – say, through misconduct, abandonment or redundancy – or in fact his/her employment is terminated. It is essential that any correspondence is clear, consistent with policies and legally accurate.
Working with these documents
1) When dealing with Termination and Redundancy it helps if you have appropriate policies in place.
2) One of the most important issues relating to Termination and Redundancy is that of Notice. The appropriate notice period should be contained in the Contract of employment.
3) Refer to any relevant awards which may regulate the employment of this type of worker and which may specifically deal with termination, redundancy, notice periods and so on.
4) Refer to any employment Agreements which may specifically deal with termination, redundancy, notice periods and so on.
5) Standard forms should be used wherever possible to ensure that the termination process is conducted lawfully and that no steps are missed.
6) Correspondence should be used to communicate with the relevant employee(s) to ensure that all issues are documented ‘in writing’ and that employees are fully informed.
7) The most appropriate approach to take when concluding the employment of a particular employee may differ depending upon a wide variety of factors. Expert advice prior to terminating a person’s employment is highly advisable.
