Guide
Minimum notice period in Australia: the NES scale explained
Updated
The NES sets a floor, not a ceiling. Here is the scale, the over-45 addition, and the two examples the Fair Work Ombudsman publishes to show how it works in practice.
The scale
When an employer ends an employee's employment, the National Employment Standards set a minimum notice period based on the employee's length of continuous service on the day they are given notice (Fair Work Ombudsman: dismissal and notice).
| Period of continuous service | Minimum notice period |
|---|---|
| 1 year or less | 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 |
On top of that, the Fair Work Ombudsman states that employees over 45 years old get an extra week of notice if they have at least 2 years of continuous service with their employer. Both conditions are tested on the day notice is given, so an employee who turns 46 a week later does not get it.
Two Fair Work examples, reproduced
The Fair Work Ombudsman publishes worked examples on its dismissal page. Our calculator returns the same answers.
- Joan, 35, five years and three months' service including 12 months of unpaid parental leave
- The unpaid parental leave counts towards continuous service, so Joan is above five years and is entitled to 4 weeks' notice. She is under 45, so there is no extra week.
- Gunter, five months' service, still inside a six month probation period
- Probation does not remove the entitlement. Gunter has less than one year of continuous service, so the notice is 1 week. Given notice on a Tuesday, Wednesday is the first day of the notice period; working three days and finishing on Friday means the remaining 2 days are paid in lieu.
How the notice period runs
- It starts the day after the employer tells the employee the employment is ending, and ends on the last day of employment.
- Leave and public holidays that fall inside the notice period do not extend it.
- An employee continues to accrue leave for time actually worked during the notice period. If the notice is paid out instead, employment ends on the last working day and accrual stops.
- An employer can let the employee work the notice, end it early and pay it out, or do a combination of the two.
Longer notice in an award, agreement or contract
An award, enterprise agreement or employment contract can require a longer minimum notice period than the NES. A contract cannot provide for less than the NES, the relevant award or agreement. Where the employer gives more notice than required, the employee only has to work out the minimum, and the employer does not have to pay the extra period if the employee leaves at the end of the minimum.
Check your own award before relying on the NES figure alone. The Fair Work Ombudsman's Notice and Redundancy Calculator applies award-specific notice rules that a general scale cannot.