As an employer, whenever you terminate an employee’s contract, you are required to give them proper notice.  This article is about the termination notice an employer must provide to a typical employee under Alberta’s Employment Standards Code.You are required by law to give an employee some time to prepare for the termination and hopefully start trying to find a new job. It makes sense to use that time to allow the employee to finish their current deliverables or turn their responsibilities over to the one taking over their position. Write up a formal notice clearly stating your intention and make sure the employee receives it.  You can also terminate an employee without providing actual notice, but in that case you have to provide them with pay in lieu of notice. What is Pay in Lieu of Notice?Pay in lieu of notice is pretty straightforward. It’s simply the amount you pay an employee upon termination to serve as compensation for the lack of proper notice.Here are the minimum required notice periods for most employees in Alberta under the Employment Standards Code:

Two men and two women sitting at table in meeting; image by Edmond Dantès, via Pexels.com.

Pay in lieu of notice is not so hard to understand, is it? The legal jargon may be a bit overwhelming, but the concept itself is simple.Paying an employee the correct Employment Standards Code termination notice is the employer’s minimum requirement to avoid an employment standards complaint, but it is often not enough to avoid a lawsuit for reasonable notice of termination at common law.  If you want to make sure you are taking the right steps when firing an employee, get in touch with an employment law specialist. This is the best way of ensuring your best odds of a favorable outcome.To recap, here’s what you need to know as an employer about providing pay in lieu of notice under the Employment Standards Code:

• You can fire someone with or without just cause, but if you do not have just cause you will need to pay them termination pay.

• You are not allowed to terminate an employee for something protected under human rights.

• Before firing someone, make sure you give them proper and enough notice. The time you give them mainly depends on how long they’ve worked in the company.

• If you cannot give them enough time, you are required by law to pay them in lieu of notice. The amount should be equivalent to the notice they should have been given.

• You are not required to pay someone or give them notice when they’ve worked for less than three months in your company. It is also not required when they are fixed-term contractual employees with a definite work period.

• If they resign on their own, you are not required to give them termination notice or pay.

• If you have just cause (strong, valid reasons for firing them), you’re off the hook from paying them or giving them notice.

• And lastly, keep in mind that employers can be required to pay severance amounts beyond those in the Employment Standards Code if the employee sues in court for wrongful dismissal.