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 …
Employment Contracts
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 …
There are three types of working relationships: (1) employer-employee; (2) contractor-independent contractor, and (3) contractor-dependent contractor. All three are treated differently vis-à-vis employment rights. Importantly, only employees and dependent contractors get severance. Independent contractors do not get severance. However, as this blog post makes clear, a worker’s time spent as an ‘independent contractor’ may be …
Employment contracts outline an employee and employer’s agreed upon terms and conditions, usually at the very least salary and job description. However, it is a best practice for both parties, especially at the at the executive level, to include more than just salary and job description. Executive employment contracts are in fact usually different from …
In addition to paying base salary over the reasonable notice period (i.e. the severance period), must an employer pay an employee their usual commissions over the reasonable notice period? Yes, an employer is generally required to pay commissions over the whole reasonable notice period if the mode of remuneration of an employee usually includes commissions …
What is a non-competition clause? A non-competition (or non-compete) clause is a passage in an employment contract which purports to prohibit employees from working for another employer or starting their own business which competes with their employer during and after employment. Without a non-compete clause, there is no prohibition against an employee competing with his or …
Ontario severance pay can mean one of three things: (1) “statutory Ontario severance pay”, (2) “common law Ontario severance pay” and (3) “severance pay according to your employment contract”. How much severance pay in Ontario am I entitled to? The amount of Ontario severance you are entitled to depends on which kind of severance applies …
Introduction Canadian startups should have an employment contract for all new hires. An employment contract helps both parties understand the employment relationship, protects the startup in the event of the termination of employees and it can also serve as a useful mechanism to attract good employees. A solid startup employment contract should contain all the …
It offends the Employment Standards Act Section 5 of the Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) prohibits employers from waiving or contracting out of any of the employment standards prescribed in the ESA, except to provide a greater benefit to the employee. Any such contracting out is void. Typically, the area of concern in an employment contract …
Employers generally owe their employees common law reasonable notice upon termination without cause. However, if the parties agree to a probationary period in an employment contract, the right to common law reasonable notice can be ousted if the employee is terminated within the probationary period. A recent Ontario Court of Appeal case, Nagribianko v. Select …