Casual Legal: Here's My Two Weeks - Required Employee Notice of Resignation

DISCLAIMER: This article is meant to provide information to Alberta Municipalities members only and is not intended to provide legal advice. You should seek the advice of legal counsel to address your specific set of circumstances. Although every effort has been made to provide current and accurate information, changes to the law may cause the information in this article to be outdated. This content is not intended for the general public. 

By Andrew Skeith
Reynolds Mirth Richards Farmer LLP
Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Service Provider 
 

Many people are familiar with the principle that employers are required to provide a certain amount of reasonable notice (or pay in lieu) if they opt to terminate an employee’s employment, without cause.

However, that same obligation to provide reasonable notice on termination also goes the other way, in that employees are legally required to provide a certain amount of reasonable notice if they resign from their employment. 

Section 58 (1) of the Employment Standards Code requires that an employee give an employer written termination notice of at least one week, if the employee has been employed for more than 90 days but less than 2 years, or two weeks, if the employee has been employed for 2 years or more.

Technically, an employee can be sued at common law for failing to provide the required amount of reasonable notice, although in most cases there would be no purpose in doing so unless the employer can specifically prove that the resignation resulted in monetary damages or loss.

If an employee gives more notice of resignation than is required, the employer can opt to expedite the termination and instead just pay the employee wages in lieu of allowing the employee to work out their notice period. Section 59 of the Code governs these situations. What is important to understand about expediting an employee’s resignation, is that if an employee complies with their obligations under section 58 and provides two weeks notice, the employer is able to waive that notice and send the employee home, but in doing so, the employer has to pay the employee two weeks worth of wages. There is no ability of an employer to accept the resignation and pay the employee nothing, as that would be a breach of the Code.
 

To access Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Helpline, Alberta Municipalities members can call toll-free to 1-800-661-7673 or casuallegal [at] abmunis.ca (email )to reach the municipal legal experts at Reynolds Mirth Richards and Farmer LLP. For more information on the Casual Legal Service, please call 310-MUNI (6864) or riskcontrol [at] abmunis.ca (email) to connect with Alberta Municipalities Risk Management staff. Any Regular or Associate member of Alberta Municipalities can access the Casual Legal Service.