This is another area of mass confusion between the employer and employee. The contract of employment clearly states that an employee must give a calendar months’ notice, the employee therefore tenders his resignation on the 15^th of the month arguing that a calendar months could be from the 15^th of one month to the 15^th of the following month and doesn’t necessarily have to be from the 1^st to the 31^st of a month. In his book, Interpretation of Statutes (Juta & Co. Ltd, first edition), Professor G.E. Devenish describes a calendar month as;

“A calendar month is a month according to the almanac or common calendar. A calendar month is therefore not a fixed number of days but varies according to the Actual month concerned. A calendar month need not necessarily run from the beginning of a month. In ascertaining a certain number of calendar months the civil method of computation is used: the first day of the period is included and the last day excluded. However the application of this definition is ambiguous. The term “calendar month” may be interpreted in two ways: either as a month as it appears on the calendar, (1 January until 31 January) or a month reckoned in terms of one day in a particular month until the corresponding day of the next month; thus for example, from the fourth day of March until the fourth day of April. Both possibilities arise in practice.”

From the above it is clear that both the employer and employee could be correct in their interpretation of a calendar month and we therefore recommend that employers indicate in contracts of employment that notice must be given between the 1^stand the 3^rdof a month in order to ensure that employees serve a complete month as notice