Maternity Contract Cover Notification Period
I started a maternity cover contract with my current company on 29th September 2014. The initial period was for 13 months and this expired on 29th October 2015. On the 30th September last year, I signed a 3 month contract extension, which expires next Friday 29th January 2016. All the terms in my contract state there is a 4 weeks notice period if either the company or myself want to terminate the contract. On Monday 18th January, after me chasing them up about an extension to the contract, I was told that the company wasn't going to extend past the expiration date. Do they still need to give me 4 weeks notice that my contract wasn't going to be extended?
Hi there. A notice period in an employment contract is the length of time that an employee or employer must give to terminate employment. Notice periods are designed to ensure that the employee or employer has adequate notice about the end of the working relationship.
In your situation, it does not appear that you or your employer chose to terminate your employment early, and so the notice period did not apply. You worked for the full 3 months under the extension contract, as was agreed. You and your employer knew that your end date would be 29 January 2016 and so there was no need for either party to give 4 weeks’ notice under the notice period. This means that, based on the information you provided, it is unlikely that your employer has done anything wrong.
If, however, your extension contract contained a clause about an option to renew or extend the contract and a specific date by which the employer was to give you notice of such a renewal or extension, then you may have a legal claim if the employer failed to comply with that clause. If your employer has breached a term of your employment contract, you may be entitled to compensation.
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