Lost Your Job? Here Is What You Must Know

What You Should Know When You Lose Your Job

Losing your job can be a traumatic event. As an employment lawyer, I speak every day with people in Ontario and British Columbia who have lost their job unexpectedly. They are worried, they are upset and angry. It is in this state of mind that they have to make a decision about a severance package. The former employer would have presented a severance offer and ask the employee to accept it. Too many individuals accept a severance offer that provides for much less than what they are owed. In fact, in my experience, over 90% of people accept severance packages that are completely inappropriate. In those cases, an individual has been wrongfully dismissed.

You ARE Owed Severance

So how do you know what you are owed if you lose your job? First, it is important to understand that every employee is entitled to severance, regardless of the length of employment and regardless of the size of the company. Severance is often also referred to as “termination pay” or “pay in lieu of notice”. Many people believe that you have to work for a company for 5 years or work for a large company to get severance. That is completely wrong. If you lost your job, you are owed compensation (unless you did something that is so bad, that it allows your employer to let you go without severance).

Calculating Severance

As long as an employer pays severance, it can usually let an employee go at any time and for any reason. The only exception is that an employer is not allowed to let an employee go for discriminatory reasons. The amount of severance that an employee is owed depends on a number of factors. The main factors are the length of employment, the person’s age and the type of job held. Generally, the longer you work, the older you are and the more senior a position you have, the more severance is owed to you.

There is no rule of 1 week of severance or 2 weeks of severance for every year of service. That is absolutely false. In fact, it is common for people with short service to get disproportionately more severance than employees with long service. For example, an employee who is 45 years old, who worked as a supervisor for 2 years, may easily be owed as much as 6 months’ severance.

Severance must include all components of compensation, including salary, bonus, benefits, car allowance, pension etc. In many cases an employer would only pay salary and not include those other components of compensation. That is wrong.

I created the Severance Pay Calculator which allows anyone to determine approximately how much severance they would be owed if they lose their job. It is free, anonymous and extremely simple to use. I encourage everyone who lost their job or is worried about losing their job to visit the site.

Inadequate Severance

Almost every day, I speak with individuals who lost their jobs and whose severance offer provides for a small fraction of what they are actually owed. In most cases, it is quite simple to get the severance that you are owed. These matters usually resolve quickly and without legal action, as long as you have a lawyer on your side who knows what he/she is doing. Do not be worried about deadlines in your severance offer. Your legal rights will not expire Friday at 5pm. If you lost your job, take your severance offer home and read it carefully. Give me a call. Do not leave on the table thousands of dollars that you are legally owed.

Losing your job can be traumatic. However, understanding your rights will help you get what you are owed and allow you to move forward in a positive way.

Talk to one of our Toronto employment lawyers, our employment lawyers in Vancouver, or our Ottawa employment lawyers and get comprehensive advice and the compensation you deserve.