The short version: the Nurses Award 2020 sets the notice a nurse must give when resigning by length of continuous service. One week under a year, rising to four weeks past five years. Give less than the award requires and your employer can hold back up to one week’s wages.
The amount of notice you owe when you resign is set by your award or enterprise agreement. It is not set by your manager, by the roster, or by what the last person to leave happened to do. For most nurses in Tasmanian aged care that instrument is the Nurses Award 2020. Clause 32.1 states the figure plainly.
It is worth knowing precisely, because the last four weeks of a job shape the reference you carry into the next one. Tasmanian aged care is a small sector. Care managers know each other. They move between providers, so the way someone leaves tends to travel with them.
The award scale runs from one week to four
Notice is calculated on continuous service with that employer at the end of the day you give notice. Continuous service means the length of time you have been employed by that business. It includes authorised unpaid leave such as unpaid parental leave. It does not include unauthorised absences.
| Continuous service | Notice you must give |
|---|---|
| Not more than 1 year | 1 week |
| More than 1 year, up to 3 years | 2 weeks |
| More than 3 years, up to 5 years | 3 weeks |
| More than 5 years | 4 weeks |
The award mirrors the scale the National Employment Standards apply to employers, with one exception. Employers owe an extra week of notice to staff over 45 who have at least two years of service. That loading runs one way only, so it never increases the notice a nurse has to give.
A nurse with six years at the same Launceston home owes four weeks. A nurse who started at a Hobart facility fourteen months ago owes two. The figure does not change because the roster is short or because a manager asks for longer.
Short notice can cost you a week’s wages
Clause 32.1(d) lets an employer deduct up to one week’s wages from award pay where a nurse aged 18 or over gives less notice than the scale requires. Two limits sit around it. No deduction can be made where the employer agreed to the shorter period. Any deduction must not be unreasonable in the circumstances.
The deduction can only come out of wages owed under the award. Accrued annual leave, long service leave and superannuation sit outside it entirely.
In practice most Tasmanian providers would rather agree a shorter finish than argue over a week’s pay. Ask early. Get the agreed date in writing. The deduction question then disappears before it can become a dispute.
Put it in writing even though you do not have to
Notice can be given verbally. Fair Work still treats written notice as best practice, for the obvious reason that it fixes the date both sides are working to.
A resignation letter needs three things: that you are resigning, the date you are giving notice, then the date you intend to finish. Anything else is optional. Warmth costs nothing and is remembered, though it is the dates that protect your final pay.
Casual work is treated differently
Casual employees do not have to give notice when they stop working. Telling the roster coordinator which shift is your last is still the professional move, particularly in a home that has come to rely on you.
If you converted from casual to a permanent line, check how your service is counted before you work out which row of the table applies to you.
The notice period is the last impression a small sector keeps of you. Serving it properly costs nothing.
Leave during a notice period is not automatic
Annual leave inside a notice period needs your employer’s agreement. Paid sick or carer’s leave can be taken by giving notice as soon as possible plus evidence if it is asked for. Public holidays fall inside the notice period without extending it, so resigning over the Christmas fortnight does not buy extra days.
Your employer cannot accept or reject a resignation. Once notice is given the only live question is whether you work the period out or finish earlier by agreement between you.
Check your enterprise agreement before you count weeks
Where an enterprise agreement covers your workplace, its notice clause applies instead of the award’s. Several Tasmanian aged care providers now bargain their own agreements. Some senior contracts specify longer notice again, particularly for clinical leadership roles.
Read the clause rather than relying on what a colleague did last year. Fair Work’s resignation guidance plus its Notice and Redundancy Calculator will confirm the figure for your own service in a couple of minutes.
Working the notice period well is the point
A notice period served properly looks like this: your documentation is current, your handover notes name the residents who need watching, outstanding referrals are closed out or passed on, then you keep turning up on time for the last four weeks. The same habits carry straight over into settling into the new role quickly.
It is also the moment to be careful about what you say on the floor. Frustrations aired in the final fortnight tend to be the thing colleagues remember, which is unfair on a nurse who gave the home several good years. Say the substantive version to the manager instead, in a conversation you asked for.
If your employer runs an exit conversation, take it seriously. What you say there rarely changes your own circumstances, though it does sometimes change the conditions for the nurses you leave behind.
The bottom line
Work out your continuous service. Match it to the scale. Put the resignation in writing with your last day named. Then ask whether an earlier finish suits both sides. That sequence protects your final pay at the same time as it protects your reference.
If you are a nurse: resigning well is part of the same craft as starting well. Serve the notice. Finish the documentation. Hand over properly.
If you lead a facility: a resignation is information rather than a betrayal. What keeps people is the work done months earlier, which is why a counter-offer rarely holds.
Thinking about a move and want to understand the market before you resign? We work across Tasmanian aged care, with every search handled personally.
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