Notice Periods in New Zealand Employment: What the Law Actually Requires

New Zealand law does not set a statutory minimum notice period for ending employment. The employment agreement controls how much notice is required, and where it is silent, the law requires only reasonable notice.

This is general information about New Zealand law, not legal advice. For your own situation, consult a lawyer or your local Community Law centre.

No statutory minimum notice period

There is no New Zealand law that fixes a minimum notice period for ending an employment relationship. Notice is instead a matter for the employment agreement, and the requirement runs both ways: an employer ending someone's employment and an employee resigning are each expected to give the agreed notice period.

What the employment agreement says

Most employment agreements set out a notice period, usually the same length for the employer and the employee, and usually require notice to be given in writing. The notice period is the time between giving notice and the date the employment relationship actually ends. Checking the agreement itself is the first step, since it overrides any general guidance below.

When the agreement is silent: reasonable notice

If an employment agreement does not include a notice period, the law requires fair and reasonable notice instead. What counts as reasonable is not a fixed number of weeks. It depends on factors including the employee's length of service, the type of job, and how long it would reasonably take the employer to replace them, alongside common practice in that workplace or industry. A senior or highly specialised role, which typically takes longer to fill, can point toward a longer reasonable notice period than a junior role that is easy to replace.

As general guidance rather than a rule, Employment New Zealand notes that 2 to 4 weeks' notice is often seen as fair and reasonable, depending on the role.

Waiving notice, and leave in lieu of notice

An employer and employee can agree that the employee will not work out the full notice period. If the employee agrees to leave early, the employer does not have to pay for the part of the notice period not worked, unless the parties agree otherwise. Alternatively, the parties can agree to leave in lieu of notice, sometimes known as garden leave, where the employee remains employed and is paid as normal but does not have to attend work for some or all of the notice period.

Dismissal without notice: serious misconduct

An employer can dismiss an employee without any notice, sometimes called instant or summary dismissal, only where the employee's behaviour amounts to serious misconduct. Even then, the employer must still carry out a fair investigation and disciplinary process before dismissing. Skipping that process can turn what might otherwise be a justified dismissal into an unjustified one, regardless of how serious the alleged misconduct was.

Notice and redundancy

Ending someone's employment because their role is genuinely redundant does not remove the requirement to give notice. The employee is still entitled to their contractual notice period, or reasonable notice if the agreement is silent, in addition to their final pay.

Related pages

For the wider picture on ending employment in New Zealand, see the employment law guide. Notice rules interact closely with redundancy: being made redundant does not shorten or remove the standard notice requirement.