Congratulations. You were just offered a new job. You have been provided with an offer letter/email and maybe even a new employment contract to sign. What to do next? How do you accept that new job offer? The Short Summary Legally, all you have to do to accept a job offer is communicate in some way your …
Employment Contracts
Severance for contract employees varies greatly depending on a number of circumstances. If a contract worker is an independent contractor, then they do not get any severance. If a contract worker is a dependent contractor, they do get severance (common law severance or some other formula if there is a termination clause). If a contract …
What is an Employment Agreement? In Ontario, all employment relationships are contractual whether or not a written employment agreement is signed. Any time an employment relationship is commenced, an employer and employee have an “agreement” to perform things (e.g. employee promised to conduct labour, and the employer promised to pay wages). There doesn’t even need …
Yes, you do have to give notice of your resignation in Canada. The common law imposes a duty to provide notice of resignation on all employees. However, you don’t have to give two weeks’ notice of your resignation in Canada per se. Rather, you have to give a “reasonable” amount of notice of your resignation, …
Probationary Period Definition A probationary period is a timeframe to which an employer can terminate an employee without notice (i.e. severance). Probationary periods run from the start of the employment relationship to, generally, three months after employment started. Probationary Period in Ontario By default, employment relationships do not have a probationary period. Employers must put …
An employee is entitled to common law notice in Ontario if they are terminated from without cause and they do not have an enforceable termination clause in their employment contract. By default, all non-unionized employees in Ontario (and Canada) are entitled to common law notice of termination of employment. Every contract of employment in Ontario …
In order of appearance, from newest to oldest, here are the employment law cases that shaped Ontario and to some extent every jurisdiction in Canada in the 2010s: Amberber v. IBM Canada Ltd., 2018 ONCA 571: Here, the Ontario Court of Appeal provided some clarity on the enforceability of termination clauses especially in regard to …
Are you an independent contractor or an employee in Ontario? Many people in Ontario work as genuine independent contractors. Think of the people that come to your office to fix your IT as true independent contractors. However, some employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors to avoid paying certain monies that are required under Ontario’s …
Not always. Only when a void Termination With Cause Clause and a valid Termination Without Cause Clause are mixed together, does the void Termination With Cause Clause render the valid Termination Without Cause Clause unenforceable. Recent Case Sheds Light on Issue of Void With Cause Clause In Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc., 2019 ONSC …
Sometimes, an employer decides to force an executive to sign a new contract while they are still working (usually in case of promotion, or because the executive doesn’t have a contract already, or the employer wants to update the termination clause in an existing contract, or because the employer simply thinks the executive earns too …