How to check notice requirements
Before you start – information you need
- Rules about Notice and final pay.
- Rules about Deducting pay and overpayments.
- The employee’s award or registered agreement – use Find my award or find your award on our List of awards page.
- Information about the employee’s final pay entitlements – see Notice and final pay or use our Pay and Conditions Tool to work out the correct entitlements.
Steps to take
1. Check if and how an employee needs to give notice
- Check the award or registered agreement for information about whether your employee needs to give notice. Find your award on our List of awards or use Find my award if you’re not sure which award applies.
- Read the award or registered agreement to confirm what notice period an employee needs to give, if any, when they resign.
- If no notice period applies then you can try to talk to your employee about giving you some notice so you have time to find someone else. You have to pay them all of their entitlements and can’t force them to give you notice.
2. Check if you can deduct an amount for notice not given from final pay
- Check the award or registered agreement for information about withholding pay when minimum notice isn’t given. Deductions from an employee’s pay can only be made under certain conditions. If the award or registered agreement doesn’t allow deduction of pay when the minimum amount of notice isn’t given, you have to pay them all of their entitlements.
- Make sure you know the correct deduction, if you can make one at all. If the award allows you to deduct pay for notice that was not given, you can only deduct money from wages. You can’t deduct from other entitlements, such as accumulated leave or other award payments.
- Any deduction made must be reasonable.
3. Pay the employee’s final pay
- Check the Final pay page to see what needs to be included in the final pay.
- Pay the final pay owed to the employee. The employee’s award will set out when final pay needs to be paid by.
- If there are any allowable deductions, they must be clearly recorded on the final pay slip.
Source
My employee left without giving notice – https://www.fairwork.gov.au/workplace-problems/common-workplace-problems/my-employee-left-without-giving-notice
Material copyright © Fair Work Ombudsman www.fairwork.gov.au
Licensed under Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode 
