Home Depot: Severance Packages

Home Depot Canada is a retail company that specializes in home improvement and construction products. It operates a chain of warehouse-style stores offering a wide range of products, including building materials, tools, appliances, garden supplies, and home décor items. The company caters to both professional contractors and do-it-yourself (DIY) customers.

Home Depot provides various services to its customers, including product installation, pro services, tool rental, home and design services.

Home Depot employs approximately 30,000 people in 182 stores across 10 Canadian provinces, including Ontario, Alberta and B.C. Globally, the company boasts nearly 500,000 workers. Regarding the types of jobs at Home Depot, the company offers a range of employment opportunities, such as retail associates, department supervisors, sales specialists, and support staff.

The company was founded by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank in 1978. The first two Home Depot stores opened in Atlanta, Georgia, offering a unique retail concept aimed at providing a wide range of products, competitive pricing, and exceptional customer service. The company rapidly expanded and went public in 1981. It’s Canadian headquarters is located in Toronto.

Home Depot acquired HD Supply in December 2020. The industrial distributor employs over 10,000 people, with a few hundred employees working in Canada.

Layoffs at Home Depot Canada

• March 2024: Samfiru Tumarkin has learned that HD Supply is laying off an unspecified number of employees.

Severance for Home Depot employees

In Canada, non-unionized employees at Home Depot can get up to 24 months of severance pay when they are fired or laid off from their job. This includes individuals working full-time, part-time, and hourly in Ontario, Alberta, or B.C.

Severance is the compensation a non-unionized worker in Canada receives from their employer when they are fired without cause.

Even if you are fired for cause, it’s very likely that you are still entitled to full severance pay because employees often don’t meet the conditions necessary for this type of dismissal.

LEARN MORE
• Severance for provincially regulated employees
• Severance packages in mass layoffs

Regardless of a company’s grasp on employment law, they are legally required to provide proper compensation following a termination.

This concept applies during challenging economic conditions, downsizing, the closure of a business, or major public health events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

WATCH: Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru explains everything you need to know about severance pay on an episode of the Employment Law Show.

The employment lawyers at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP have represented numerous home improvement retail employees over the years in severance package negotiations.

We have successfully secured much larger amounts for individuals employed across a variety of positions, from entry level jobs to executives.

How to properly calculate severance pay

Employers often incorrectly calculate severance pay. There is a belief that severance pay is one week’s pay, two weeks’ pay, or a week for every year of service an employee has with the company.

For non-unionized employees, the main factors of termination or severance pay include age, length of service, position, bonuses, benefits, and the ability to find new work.

If you work at Home Depot, you are likely a provincially regulated employee. That means your severance package must consider:

• Your minimum severance pay as a provincially regulated employee, which is determined by each individual province.
• Your full severance pay according to our legal system (common law) which can be as much as 24 months’ pay.

To figure out how much compensation you may be entitled to, use our firm’s Pocket Employment Lawyer.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
• Severance Pay in Ontario
• Alberta severance packages
• Understanding severance in B.C.
• Layoffs in Canada

Don’t sign on the dotted line!

Do not accept any severance offer, termination papers, or exit agreement that Home Depot may provide you with.

Once you sign back these documents, you eliminate your ability to negotiate a fair and proper severance package.

Generally speaking, if an employee does not receive the proper amount of severance pay when they lose their job, they may be considered to have been wrongfully dismissed. An employment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP can analyze your situation and explain how much compensation you may be owed.

Talk to an employment lawyer

The experienced employment law team at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP has helped tens of thousands of non-unionized individuals across the country. In addition to severance package negotiations, our team has experience securing solutions for the following employment matters:

Our lawyers in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. stand ready to help you solve your workplace issues.

If you are a non-unionized employee who needs help with an employment issue, contact us or call 1-855-821-5900 to get the advice you need, and the compensation you deserve.

Disclaimer: The materials above are provided as general information about the rights of employees in Canada. It is not specific to any one company and should not be read as suggesting any improper conduct on the part of any specific employer.