How does statutory notice pay differ from contractual notice pay?

Full answer

UK employment law sets a statutory minimum notice period that every employer must give an employee when terminating their employment (other than for gross misconduct): one week's notice after one month but less than two years of continuous service, then one additional week for each further complete year of service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks after 12 or more years of service — this statutory minimum acts as an absolute floor, and cannot be reduced by a term in an employment contract, even if both parties agreed to it. Contractual notice, by contrast, is whatever specific notice period is actually written into an individual's employment contract, which employers are free to set at a longer period than the statutory minimum if they choose — commonly seen in more senior or specialist roles, where contracts might specify one, three, or even six months' notice regardless of length of service, reflecting the greater disruption and recruitment difficulty of replacing a more senior employee. The key rule reconciling the two is straightforward: an employee is always entitled to whichever notice period is longer, the statutory minimum or the contractual notice period — a contract cannot lawfully specify less than the statutory minimum (any such clause would simply be void and replaced by the statutory minimum), but a contract specifying more than the statutory minimum is fully enforceable, and the employee benefits from that longer contractual period instead. This works in both directions: employees are also generally required to give whatever notice their contract specifies when resigning (there is no statutory minimum notice period an employee must give when resigning, other than one week for anyone who has been employed for one month or more, so contractual notice periods for resignation are particularly important to check), and failing to give proper contractual notice when resigning can, in principle, expose an employee to a breach of contract claim from their employer, though this is relatively rarely pursued in practice. Garden leave clauses, where included in a contract, allow an employer to require an employee to stay away from work but remain employed and paid during some or all of their notice period, which is a separate contractual mechanism from the notice period length itself. Use the Notice Period calculator to check your own statutory versus contractual entitlement.

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