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Constructive dismissal permits an employee to stop working and demand termination pay (i.e. severance pay) or failing that sue for wrongful dismissal even though their employment was never terminated. In other words, a constructive dismissal gives an employee the right to quit their job and get a severance and employment insurance (EI). Normally an employee is not …

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What is a severance package? A severance package is an offer of monies from an employer to an employee upon termination of employment in exchange for the employee signing a release releasing the employer from liability. In other words, a severance package is a settlement proposal to avoid the employee suing for wrongful dismissal. A …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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Wrongful Dismissal Definition Wrongful dismissal means a claim made by an employee that their employer has breached their employment agreement with regard to those terms and conditions concerning employment termination. The following are a list of examples of wrongful dismissal claims. Wrongful Dismissal Example 1: Not enough severance If an employee is not provided enough …

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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 …

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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 …

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What is a Performance Improvement Plan? A performance improvement plan or “PIP” is a document that employers give to employees that can serve a mixture of two goals: (1) actually helping the employee improve and/or (2) building a case to terminate the employee. Frist, a PIP helps an employee improve by setting out what is …

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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 …

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