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Dutton Employment Law Blog

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Jeffrey Dutton

Latest from Dutton Employment Law

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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 case of termination. We also check to see if the termination clause is enforceable. If the termination clause says the…
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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 employed’ on the payout date. Thus, the question becomes, is the employee entitled to the bonus or not? When an…
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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 resignation if the employer has not detrimentally relied upon it: [34] Even if the trial judge had been correct in finding a resignation at law, it is clear, as counsel agreed, that an employee may resile from a resignation, provided the employer has not relied upon it…
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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 bullying and harassment (i.e. race, age, sex, disability, etc.). Thus, whenever faced with a bullying and harassment Application at the…
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Employment Contracts: Key Clauses Employers in Ontario 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 an employment contract, they still have an implied agreement with their employer in that they are bound to the “common law” rather than defined…
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In Ontario, a lay-off can be no longer than 13 weeks. Under section 56(2) of the Employment Standards Act, if the lay-off 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 lay-off can be longer than 13 weeks. In that regard, a lay-off can be up to 35 weeks if one of…
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 and minimum wage as per their provincial employment standards legal requirements. Note however, there are countless special caveats and regulations which may apply altering these…
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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 biggest issues you have ever had in your life. If you are an employer, you are trusting someone to efficiently…
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 severance, it is a wrongful dismissal. Thus, the question becomes, how much severance is an employee entitled to? Read our…
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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 considered in calculating severance if the worker was hired later as an ‘employee’. Cormier v. 1772887 Ontario Limited c.o.b. as…