Part 1 — The Public Service Generally Public Service Commission
25.01 Termination Notice of termination and severance pay
(a) "base salary" means one ha lf of the employee's regular
biweekly rate of pay at the time of termination;
(b) "continuous service" means the last period of employment
that is not interrupted by a break in service;
(c) "office of the Legislature" means
(i) the Legislative Assembly Office,
(ii) the Office of the Auditor General,
(iii) the Office of the Ombudsman,
(iv) the Office of the C hief Electoral Officer,
(v) the Office of the Ethics Commissioner,
(vi) the Office of the I nformation and Privacy
Commissioner,
(vii) the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, and
(viii) the Office of the Public Interest Commissioner.
(2) This section does not apply to
(a) an employee who is a member of a bargaining unit under the
Public Service Employee Relations Act, or
RSA 2000
(b) an employee who
(i) holds a position excluded from a classification plan
pursuant to section 11, and
(ii) is employed under a contract of employment that
specifies the notice of termination, severance payments
or combination thereof to which the employee is entitled
on termination of employment.
(3) Notwithstanding any right existing at common law, an
employee who is terminated without cause is entitled to a period of
notice of termination no greater than the following:
(a) where the employee has less than one year of continuous
service, 2 weeks;
(b) where the employee has one or more years of continuous
service, 4 weeks for every full year of continuous service up
to a maximum of 78 weeks.
(4) Subject to subsection (6), an employee who is terminated
without cause may be provided severance pay, determined in
accordance with subsection (5), in lieu of all or any portion of the
period of notice of termination to which the employee is entitled
under subsection (3).
(5) The amount of severance pay that may be provided under
subsection (4) is the amount determined by the formula
1.16 × A × B
where
A is the employee's base salary;
B is the number of weeks for which severance pay is to be
provided in lieu of notice of termination.
(6) No severance pay shall be provided under subsection (4)
without the approval of
(a) in the case of termination of an employee of an office of the
Legislature, the deputy head of that office, or
(b) in the case of the termina tion of an employee other than an
employee of an office of the Legislature, the Commissioner
and the Deputy Attorney General.
RSA 2000
(7) The Deputy Attorney General may delegate to any person the
authority to approve the provision of severance pay under
subsection (6)(b).
(8) Where there is a conflict between this section and section 54 of
the Employment Standards Code, this section prevails.
2019 c18 s15;2020 c23 s15