As we have discussed in previous articles, if you are fired from work and decide to seek severance, you are required to take reasonable steps to find alternate comparable employment. This obligation is referred to as the “duty to mitigate” the loss of your employment.
In the recent decision of Covenoho v. Pendylum Ltd., the Ontario Court of Appeal awarded a former employee of Pendylum 40 weeks' pay ($56,000.00), overturning the ruling of the Motion Judge at summary judgment.
Vey Willetts LLP was recently successful on a motion for summary judgment, seeking increased severance for an employee who had been wrongfully dismissed. In its decision, Vinette v. Delta Printing Limited (2017 ONSC 182), the Superior Court significantly increased Mr. Vinette's severance entitlement from 8 weeks to 15 months.
Vey Willetts lawyer Paul Willetts was quoted in the November 28, 2016 edition of Canadian HR Reporter in an article entitled "Older Employees Deserve More". The article discusses the recent Ontario Superior Court decision of Ozorio v. Canadian Hearing Society. In this case, a 60-year old senior managerial employee, with 30 years service was dismissed. Ms. Ozorio was ultimately awarded 24 months of reasonable notice. To read our recent review of the case and its implications for older workers please click here.
Courts have previously recognized that older employees may struggle to find comparable re-employment. In a recent decision, Ozorio v. Canadian Hearing Society, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded 24 months’ common law reasonable notice to a dismissed employee, Ms. Ozorio, who was 61 years old at the time of dismissal.
Employers who fail to incorporate a binding termination clause into their written employment agreements may face significant, and unexpected, liability for severance. This lesson was learned the hard way by Qualified Metal Fabricators ("QML") in a recent unpublished case out of Toronto.
QML employed Mr. Roy Singh as an assembler from May 2011 until his dismissal, due to an alleged shortage of work, in May 2015. Upon termination, QML paid Mr. Singh 4 weeks' termination pay in compliance with the Employment Standards Act, 2000, and allegedly the terms of his written employment agreement.
Spring time is just around the corner, and with the tulips and spring bulbs comes one of our most favourite things - TAX TIME.
Tax Deductions for Legal Fees
Did you know that you may be able to deduct from your income taxes a portion of legal fees incurred in your employment law matter? If you paid legal fees in relation to securing entitlements from your former employer, you may be further entitled to a deduction on your T-1 return to the Canada Revenue Agency ("CRA").
Q&A is a recurring series on the Vey Willetts LLP blog. The aim is to provide quick answers to questions we commonly encounter in the day to day practice of being neck deep in workplace law. In this edition we focus on employment insurance ("EI") claims.
Most workers are entitled to claim EI regular benefits (sometimes still called 'unemployment insurance' or 'UI') when they lose their job through no fault of their own. However, the process to access benefits can often be a slow and frustrating one. Below we answer some of the most frequent questions we get from individuals about EI benefits.
