Terminating employees during the holidays: Not just a faux pas

Terminations during the holiday season

Employers in Canada have a clear obligation to maintain good faith in the manner of termination or risk attracting extraordinary damages in a wrongful dismissal case.

However, employers often overlook the fact that not only the manner but also the timing of a termination can attract extraordinary damages, or compensation. This is particularly true when dismissing employees during the holiday season. Our courts consider the timing of these terminations to be unduly insensitive, cold and brusque.

Firing employees during the holiday season not only places the individual in financial uncertainty during an expensive time of year, but it also leaves them jobless at a point when most companies are on vacation and are not actively hiring.

Employers must take extreme caution when terminating employees during the holidays. Not only is it a clear faux pas, it also exposes them to liability for additional damages or an extended notice period (larger severance package) in a wrongful dismissal action.

Bad faith may lead to additional compensation

Terminating an employee during the holidays can be seen as bad faith dealings, for which the courts have ordered employers to pay additional compensation.

For example, in Horner v 897469 Ontario Inc. the Ontario Superior Court awarded $20,000 in aggravated damages and $10,000 in punitive damages to an employee who was dismissed during the Christmas holidays.

In that case, Ms. Horner, the employee, submitted a harassment complaint to her employer on December 22. The employer sent Ms. Horner home, promising to deal with her complaint in the new year.

Instead, on December 28th, Ms. Horner found a termination letter stuck in the back door of her house, where her employer was terminating her for cause.

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The court noted that in delivering a termination letter “during the Christmas holidays” the employer’s conduct was “beyond “cold and brusque”; it was cowardly” and had caused Ms. Horner extreme stress and anxiety.

The court therefore awarded Ms. Horner additional damages for this bad faith conduct.

Similarly, in Zesta Engineering Ltd. v Cloutier the Ontario Superior Court awarded $75,000 in moral damages for the employer’s bad faith manner of termination. In this case, the employee was let go five days before Christmas. The court noted that the employee “suddenly found himself without a job at Christmas”.

December dismissal may lead to more severance

Even without bad faith in the manner of dismissal, terminating an employee in December may result in more severance pay because because few employers are actively hiring.

For example, in Black v. Robinson Group Ltd., 2002 CarswellOnt 3463, the Ontario Superior Court awarded Ms. Black an additional two months’ pay on top of 12 month severance package she was awarded. This was compensation for the employer’s “unconscionable decision” to terminate her shortly before the holiday season.

LEARN MORE
• How do I calculate severance in Alberta?
• Understanding severance pay in Ontario
• Severance packages for BC workers

What to do if you lose your job during the holidays

You should contact an employment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP immediately if you lose your job during the holidays. You may be inclined to accept whatever severance package your employer offers you due to the financial pressure of being out of work. It is crucial to have any offers reviewed by an employment lawyer prior to accepting it, to ensure that it properly reflects what you are legally owed.

Our employment lawyers in Ontario, Alberta and BC have helped tens of thousands of Canadians secure the severance they were owed after being dismissed from their job. As Canada’s most positively reviewed employment and disability law firm, our team is uniquely positioned to provide the best results when negotiating termination packages and compensation for long-term disability claim denials.