In Canada we have developed the practice of requiring employers to give employees extensive notice or pay in lieu of notice when terminating without cause. Most provinces have enacted employment standards acts where the required statutory notice is much less than the common law requirement. But these statutes also provide that the longer term (in either the statute or the common law) should prevail. Is it appropriate or fair to employers to impose such lengthy notice periods? Should the declared statutory period simply override any prior common law approach, as would normally be the case with statutes? On the other hand, do you think that when a term is included in the employment contract that reduces this notice period, it should be allowed to stand? Think about the relative bargaining positions of the employer and employee at the time of hiring, when these special terms are normally agreed to.