Termination & resignation

If you give notice of termination of your position

Notice

If you want to terminate your own position, make sure you know your notice of termination.

Your notice will most often follow the notice of termination of the Salaried Employees Act. This means that you can terminate your position with a notice corresponding to the current month + 1 month's notice (unless your probationary period is still in effect). For example, you can leave your place of work on March 31st if you gave your notice of termination during the month of February.

As part of the Salaried Employees Act, a probationary period can be agreed upon in the employment contract. This means that a shorter notice period is in effect for the first three months of employment. Most often, this notice for you as an employee is one of the following: ‘without notice’, ‘with one day’s notice’ or ‘with 14 days’ notice. Note that the notice period must be possible to include in the remainder of the probationary period in order to be valid.

It is possible to agree on a mutual extension of the notice of termination of the Salaried Employees Act. In order for an extended notice of termination to be legally binding the employer must equally extend both your notice and the employers notice of termination. This is only the case if your notice of termination as an employee has been extended. The employer can always extend the notice of termination given to you if you are to be terminated. Therefore, be sure to check whether an extension of your notice of termination has been agreed in your employment contract.

Remember that the termination must have taken place at the latest within normal working hours on the last working day of the month.

Documentation

As a salaried employee, your termination must always be in writing. There is nothing to prevent you from also resigning your position verbally, but there must always be a written documention of  when you resigned your position. It is a good idea to send an e-mail with confirmation, as this will ensure that you receive electronic documentation that your termination has reached your manager with an in-built timestamp.

If you resign from your position to take up another job, you should always make sure that you have entered into a legally binding agreement with the new employer. We always recommend that you have a final employment contract, as this is the only way in which you are assured that you know the terms under which you will be employed. Thus, a written commitment that you have been offered employment is not enough, unless there is a clear and complete statement of the terms that will apply to the employment.

You are always welcome to contact Pharmadanmark's legal department if you have any questions about how to terminate your position.

Employer's termination 

Notice

As a member of Pharmadanmark, you will almost always be employed as a salaried employee. This means that your notice of termination follows the notices of the Salaried Employees Act. Your employer's notice of termination will depend on how long you have been employed.

Seniority at the time of termination

Termination notice

Up to 5 months (unless a trial period has been agreed)

1 month

From 6 months to 2 years and 9 months

3 months

From 2 years and 9 months to 5 years and 8 months

4 months

From 5 years and 8 months to 8 years and 7 months

5 months

More than 8 years and 7 months 6 months

6 months

 

If a probationary period is in effect, the employer's notice of termination in the first 3 months of employment can be agreed to a 14 days' notice.

Grounds for termination

As a salaried employee, you always have the right to receive a written cause for why you have been terminated. Whether there is a reasonable cause for the termination is assessed on a case-by-case basis. It is possible that you can compensated in the event of an unjustified termination, but this is only a possibility if you - at the time of termination – have obtained a seniority of at least 12 months.

However, it will most often be without just cause if a termination is connected in any way with for example, pregnancy, disability, gender, race or other discrimination. Read more about ‘Discrimination’.

We recommend that you contact Pharmadanmark's legal department if you have been terminated.

Work obligation during the notice period

Whether you have to show up for work during the notice period or not is decided by your employer.

If the employer does not need your labor during the notice period, you may be released from work (garden leave). This means that you will be released from all obligations in relation to attending work during the notice period.

If, on the other hand, the employer assesses that your labor may be needed during the notice period, you may either be asked to report for work or be suspended.

Seniority allowance

If at the time of the expiry of the employer's notice of termination you have more than 12 or 17 years 'seniority in the workplace, you are entitled to one or three months' worth of salary as a compensation.

Severance agreement 

In some cases, you will be offered a severance agreement as a termination of your employment relationship. Such agreements are most often entered into on the employer's initiative or as part of a settlement of a termination case.

Severance agreements serve as a final statement of all terms associated with the termination of employment. The most common terms regulated in a severance agreement are, for example, leave of absence/garden leave, holiday and severance pay.

Summary dismissal  

For an employer to legally, summarily dismiss an employee, there must have been a material breach of the employment relationship on the part of the employee. Whether or not there is a material breach depends on a specific assessment on a case-by-case basis.

Gross disloyal behavior, theft from the employer, illegal absence from work or violent or threatening behavior in a work context may, for example, justify a dismissal.

We recommend that you contact Pharmadanmark's legal department immediately if you have been summarily dismissed.