Guide
Statutory notice vs contract notice in Ireland
Updated
Two sources of notice sit on top of each other. Knowing which applies is usually the whole question.
The statutory floor
Citizens Information states that the amount of notice you are entitled to depends on your contract of employment and on the statutory minimum notice set out in law, that your contract can give you more notice than the statutory table but cannot give you less, and that your employer must give you at least the statutory minimum period of notice (Citizens Information).
The Act is blunter still. Section 4(5) provides that any provision in a contract of employment providing for a period of notice less than the statutory period shall have effect as if the contract provided for notice in accordance with the section (Irish Statute Book). A short notice clause is not enforceable, it is simply rewritten by the statute.
The Workplace Relations Commission puts the same rule in one line: any provision in a contract of employment for shorter periods of notice than the minimum periods stipulated in the Acts has no effect (Workplace Relations Commission).
When the contract is silent
For an employee resigning, Citizens Information is direct: if your contract does not state a notice period, you must provide the legal minimum, which is one week. It also notes that you do not have to give notice at all if you worked for your employer for less than 13 weeks and there is no employment contract specifying a notice period (Citizens Information: leaving your job).
| Situation | Notice that applies |
|---|---|
| Contract silent, employer dismissing after 6 years | The statutory band: 4 weeks |
| Contract says 2 weeks, employer dismissing after 6 years | The statutory band still: 4 weeks, because the contract cannot go lower |
| Contract says 3 months, employer dismissing after 6 years | The contract: 3 months, because it improves on the statute |
| Contract silent, employee resigning after 6 years | 1 week, the employee's flat statutory obligation |
| Contract says 1 month, employee resigning after 6 years | 1 month, because the contract requires more than the statute |
Continuous service, and what counts towards it
Citizens Information states that your service is continuous unless you are dismissed or you resign, and that continuity is not normally affected by strikes, lay-offs, dismissal followed by immediate re-employment, or a transfer of undertakings. The Workplace Relations Commission adds that on a transfer of undertakings, service with the new owner includes service with the previous owner.
- Any absence of up to 26 weeks between consecutive periods of employment counts as service if it is due to lay-off, illness or injury, or is taken by agreement with the employer.
- Any period of lock-out counts as service.
- Periods of absence due to service with the Reserve Defence Forces count as service.
- Any period of absence to take part in a strike relating to the employer's business does not count as service.
A gap in service can move you across a band boundary, so where the answer is close to two, five, ten or fifteen years the counting rules are worth reading properly rather than estimating.