By written notice within the terms of a written contract. Otherwise the notice period is usually the same as the intervals between paydays. The reasons obviously must vary according to the the circumstances. Misconduct requires a lot of legal procedures to be followed (verbal warnings, written warnings and so on) Redundancy must be the genuine article, not an excuse for getting rid of someone you've 'gone off'. If you are employed on a fixed term contract, then the expiry of the fixed term must, by definition lead to termination of employment. The moral of the story, for both employerand employee, is get in down in writing. If you have a real situation, you should get advice from either CAB or a solicitor..