Almost everyone in Ontario is entitled to ‘severance pay’ unless that person is terminated for just cause. However, keep in mind that there are two kinds of severance pay: Who gets common law severance pay? Almost everyone has a right to common law severance pay unless they have a valid and enforceable termination clause limiting their …

There is no rule that 24 months’ is the absolute maximum amount of reasonable notice a long-standing, senior employee can receive in Ontario (see my earlier blog post on the topic here). To that effect, in Lowndes, the Ontario Court of Appeal observed that calculating reasonable notice is “case-specific” and, while there is “no absolute …

Question: How much severance am I owed in Ontario? Lawyer Answer: The first thing we do when calculating how much severance an employee in Ontario is entitled to is to check their employment contract for a termination clause. If the employee has a termination clause in their contract, then we determine what it promises in …

Some employment contracts have a clause that says the employee must be ‘actively employed” on the bonus payout date to get his bonus. Sometimes, an employee with this clause in their contract is terminated before the annual bonus payout date and the employer refuses to pay the employee his annual bonus because he wasn’t “actively …

Employees can take back a resignation in Ontario An employee can take back a resignation so long as the employer has not taken steps to rely upon the resignation. Writing for the Ontario Court of Appeal in Kieran (2004),[1] Justice Lang stated [at para. 34] that, where an employee has resigned, he may resile from …

The Ontario Human Rights Code (the “Code”) prohibits discrimination in employment. However, the Code does not prohibit general bullying and harassment in employment. A successful claim of bullying and harassment at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) requires an applicant show that one of the prohibited grounds of the Code was a factor in the …

Employment Contract: Key Clauses Employers in Ontario (and all of Canada) should require employees to sign an employment contract before starting work. These agreements usually define the employee’s earnings, the employer’s policies, restrictive covenants such as non-competition or non-solicitation clauses and, most importantly, what happens in the event of termination. If employees do not sign …

In Ontario, a layoff can be no longer than 13 weeks. Under section 56(2) of the Employment Standards Act, if the layoff is longer than 13 weeks, then the employee becomes terminated. In that case, the employee is likely entitled to pay in lieu of notice and severance. However, in rare circumstances, a layoff can …

THIS BLOG POST IS OUDTATED. Employment standards laws in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia prescribe minimum overtime pay, minimum statutory holiday pay, minimum vacation pay and minimum wage. Refer below for a basic summary of the amount Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia employers must pay their employees for overtime pay, statutory holiday pay, vacation pay …

If you landed on this blog post, you are probably looking to retain an employment lawyer or employment law firm, and you are doing your due diligence. Good for you. Never hire a lawyer without doing research. You need to be meticulous. If you are an employee, you are trusting someone with one of the …