References present a double-edged sword for employers. On one hand, employers typically want former employees to find new jobs as doing so will get them off the company’s severance payroll. On the other hand, providing references may expose employers to dual-pronged liability in negligence and/or defamation. Given the recent news that Canada lost nearly 46,000…
As the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for”. Two former employees of now-defunct Trillium Manufacturing are suing the Ministry of Labour over advice they received from its ESA hotline. The two employees accepted 8 weeks’ pay-in-lieu of notice from their employer as the ESA hotline told them that was their maximum legal entitlement,…
In unionized workplaces, temporary layoffs have long been an employer’s most effective way of responding to economic downturns. But what about non-unionized employers? Traditionally, unless an employer can show that it has an implied or express contractual right to temporarily layoff, a court will find that the interruption to employment will constitute a constructive dismissal…
Written by Rhonda Shirreff and Ryan Edmonds In Part 1 of our “Mind the Gap” trilogy, we explained how employers can use contractual termination provisions to avoid falling into the common law notice “gap” when employees exit the company. In Part 2, we discussed consideration and timing for introducing existing employees to written employment contracts. But…
Written by Rhonda Shirreff and Ryan Edmonds In Part 1 of Mind the Gap we explained how termination provisions in employment contracts can limit liability vis-à-vis dismissed employees by creating manageable and predictable termination costs for your organization. In this second installment of our terminations trilogy, we will discuss best practices for transitioning an incumbent…