AP798297 - South Australian Government Departments and Instrumentalities (Metal Trades) Award 1999
[16 Termination of employment title changed and substituted by PR960906 ppc 01Aug05]
16.1 Notice of termination by employer
16.1.1 In order to terminate the employment of an employee the employer must give to the employee the period of notice specified in the table below:
Period of continuous service |
Period of notice |
1 year or less |
1 week |
Over 1 year and up to the completion of 3 years |
2 weeks |
Over 3 years and up to the completion of 5 years |
3 weeks |
Over 5 years of completed service |
4 weeks |
16.1.2 In addition to the notice in 16.1.1, employees over 45 years of age at the time of the giving of the notice with not less than two years continuous service, are entitled to an additional week's notice.
16.1.3 Payment in lieu of the prescribed notice in 16.1.1 and 16.1.2 must be made if the appropriate notice period is not required to be worked. Provided that employment may be terminated by the employee working part of the required period of notice and by the employer making payment for the remainder of the period of notice.
16.1.4 The required amount of payment in lieu of notice must equal or exceed the total of all amounts that, if the employee's employment had continued until the end of the required period of notice, the employer would have become liable to pay to the employee because of the employment continuing during that period. That total must be calculated on the basis of:
16.1.4(a) the employee's ordinary hours of work (even if not standard hours); and
16.1.4(b) the amounts ordinarily payable to the employee in respect of those hours, including (for example) allowances, loading and penalties; and
16.1.4(c) any other amounts payable under the employee's contract of employment.
16.1.5 The period of notice in this clause does not apply:
16.1.5(a) in the case of dismissal for serious misconduct;
16.1.5(b) to apprentices;
16.1.5(c) to employees engaged for a specific period of time or for a specific task or tasks;
16.1.5(d) to trainees whose employment under a traineeship agreement or an approved traineeship is for a specified period or is, for any other reason, limited to the duration of the agreement; or
16.1.5(e) to casual employees.
16.1.6 Continuous service is defined in clause 4.5.
16.2 Notice of termination by an employee
16.2.1 The notice of termination required to be given by an employee is the same as that required of an employer, save and except that there is no requirement on the employee to give additional notice based on the age of the employee concerned.
16.2.2 If an employee fails to give the notice specified in 16.1.1 the employer has the right to withhold monies due to the employee to a maximum amount equal to the amount the employee would have received under 16.1.4.
16.3 Job search entitlement
Where an employer has given notice of termination to an employee, an employee shall be allowed up to one day's time off without loss of pay for the purpose of seeking other employment. The time off shall be taken at times that are convenient to the employee after consultation with the employer.
16.4 Transmission of business
Where a business is transmitted from one employer to another, as set out in clause 36 - Redundancy, the period of continuous service that the employee had with the transmittor or any prior transmittor is deemed to be service with the transmittee and taken into account when calculating notice of termination. However, an employee shall not be entitled to notice of termination or payment in lieu of notice for any period of continuous service in respect of which notice has already been given or paid for.
16.5 Abandonment of employment
16.5.1 The absence of an employee from work for a continuous period exceeding three working days without the consent of the employer and without notification to the employer will be evidence that the employee has abandoned his or her employment.
16.5.2 Provided that if within a period of 14 days from the employees last attendance at work or the date of their last absence in respect of which notification has been given or consent has been granted an employee has not established to the satisfaction of the employer that they were absent for reasonable cause, they will be deemed to have abandoned their employment and the notice period provided in 16.2 will not apply.
16.5.3 Termination of employment by abandonment in accordance with this subclause will operate as from the date of the last attendance at work or the last day’s absence in respect of which consent was granted, or the date of the last absence in respect of which notification was given to the employer, whichever is the later.
