A lot of employees are still losing their jobs in a trend that began back in 2023 right after all the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic had settled down. For instance, the global tech industry had suffered from an economic slowdown that started in early 2023 and resulted in thousands of employees being dismissed from their jobs. Companies like Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter and Google all announced mass layoffs in 2023.

In 2024, a lot of companies including major retailers continued to announce mass layoffs of their workers. For instance, The Body Shop Canada, Canada Goose Holdings Inc., Hudson’s Bay Co., Mastermind Toys, Rona Inc., Staples Canada and Wayfair were all businesses that announced that they would need to lay off some of their employees.

Termination of Employment

There are several different words or phrases used by people to describe termination of employment. For example, people may say they were “dismissed” or “let go.” Some people may say they were “fired” or “laid off.” However, the latter is a term of art and has a particular meaning in law. Most employees who are “laid off” are not truly laid off and are, as such, entitled to various forms of compensation. We have written about layoffs extensively and you can review some of our previous blogs here, here and here about the topic.

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However, regardless of whether the employer has advised the employee that they were let go or dismissed, the employer must provide to the employee either written notice of the termination, pay in lieu of written notice of the termination or a combination of notice of the termination and pay.

There are certain factors that exist that will change how much the employee is owed in terms of notice or pay in lieu of notice. Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000, sets out what an employee’s minimum statutory notice period should be. Further, if the employee works in an industry that is federally regulated, that employee’s minimum notice period is set out in the Canada Labour Code, 1985. It must be stressed that these amounts set out in the statutes are minimum entitlements owed to the employee. Employees could be entitled to much longer notice periods under the common law in addition to statutory entitlements. For 2 example, an employee could even be entitled to over twenty-four (24) months in common law notice. The amount of common law notice is determined based on certain factors. These factors include age, length of service, character of employment and the ability of the employee to find similar alternative employment.

If the employee fails to provide adequate notice of termination, they have wrongfully dismissed the employee and, as such, the employee may bring a claim or lawsuit against their former employer for wrongful dismissal.

How Can Zeilikman Law Help

Any fired employee should not rush to sign or accept any termination package or documentation including any severance package that their employer gives to them upon dismissal if there is one.

The first thing that the employee should do is to approach an employment lawyer like those at Zeilikman Law to get their case reviewed. This is because employment lawyers can determine if the employee’s dismissal complies with their entitlements to notice, and termination pay under statute as well as the common law. The employer can only lawfully limit an employee’s entitlements to notice under the common law (not under statute) and only if the employer’s employment agreement’s termination clause is enforceable.

The lawyers at Zeilikman Law will further discuss any pertinent facts that took place prior to the employee’s dismissal that many lead to further damages beyond wrongful dismissal such as if any human rights concerns exist, etc. They will then assist the employee to determine what next steps should be taken, if any. For instance, should the employee claim wrongful dismissal? Perhaps they should negotiate a better deal with their former employer? Or maybe they should even accept what the employer has offered?

The bottom line is that the employment lawyers at Zeilikman Law can assist the dismissed employee to navigate these confusing issues so that the employee’s legal entitlements to notice of termination or pay in lieu of that notice are protected and enforced.