Jobs naturally evolve. New technology, staffing changes and company restructuring can all lead to different tasks or responsibilities. However, there is a legal difference between a reasonable adjustment to your work and being placed in a substantially different job.
In Ontario, your employer generally has some flexibility to update your duties. That flexibility isn’t unlimited. The terms of your employment contract, the work you were hired to perform and the impact of the change all matter.
The Quick Answer: Can your employer change your job description in Ontario? Yes, minor and reasonable changes may be allowed, particularly when the new tasks remain within the general scope of your position. However, a major change to your core duties, authority, status, compensation or professional role could be constructive dismissal. If that happens, you may be entitled to a full severance package.
On This Page:
- 1. Can Your Employer Change Your Job?
- 2. Changes Without Consent or Notice
- 3. Additional Duties Without More Pay
- 4. Title Changes, Demotions and New Roles
- 5. When Is It Constructive Dismissal?
- 6. What Should You Do?
Can an Employer Change Your Job Description in Ontario?
Yes. Employers are generally allowed to make reasonable changes to the tasks employees perform as their business needs evolve.
For example, an employer may be able to update procedures, introduce new technology, redistribute related tasks or ask an employee to provide temporary coverage for a colleague.
A change becomes more concerning when it transforms the nature of the position or removes important parts of the job you agreed to perform.
| Changes That May Be Reasonable | Changes That May Be Significant |
|---|---|
| Adding related tasks within the existing role | Moving you into a substantially different occupation |
| Updating procedures or software | Removing management authority or direct reports |
| Providing short-term coverage for a colleague | Requiring you to perform what amounts to a second job |
| Making a superficial job-title update | Assigning duties that require completely different skills |
What determines your actual job duties?
Your duties aren’t determined by the written job description alone. The employment relationship can also be shaped by:
- Your employment contract in Ontario
- Your offer letter and original job posting
- Written workplace policies
- Verbal promises made when you accepted the position
- The duties you have regularly performed over time
- The established practices of the workplace
A job description is important evidence, but it isn’t always the complete employment agreement. Courts will examine the employment relationship as a whole.
What does “other duties as assigned” mean?
Many job descriptions include a clause stating that the employee may be required to perform “other duties as assigned.”
This wording gives an employer some flexibility. It doesn’t necessarily provide an unlimited right to turn your position into a completely different job.
A clause allowing related or incidental duties is unlikely to justify a major loss of authority, a move into an unrelated profession or a substantial change in the nature of your work.
Can Your Employer Change Your Job Role Without Your Consent?
Your employer may not need your consent for every minor change. However, your agreement becomes much more important when the employer wants to substantially change an essential term of your job.
A major role change imposed without your consent could breach your employment contract and potentially amount to constructive dismissal.
Can an employer change your role without consultation?
Ontario law doesn’t create a general requirement that an employer consult with you before making every routine adjustment to your duties.
However, imposing a significant permanent change without discussion, explanation or agreement can create a serious legal problem. The lack of consultation may also make it more difficult for the employer to argue that you accepted the new arrangement.
Can your employer change your job description without notice?
A minor change may be introduced without a specific notice period. There is no general Employment Standards Act rule requiring an employer to provide a fixed number of days before updating a job description.
A substantial change is different. Your employer may need your consent or may have to provide sufficient advance notice that the existing employment terms will end and new terms will take effect.
The amount of notice required can depend on the same factors used to determine an employee’s severance entitlement. A brief email or updated job description may not be sufficient notice of a major permanent change.
Can your employer change your job after you are hired?
Yes, but the fact that the change occurs after you were hired doesn’t answer whether it is lawful.
Your employer may reasonably update the role as the business develops. It may cross the line if the new job is substantially different from what you accepted or from the position you have performed over a long period.
Can your employer force you to change roles?
An employer can ask you to accept another role. It may also decide to end your employment if you don’t agree, provided it gives you the proper notice or severance pay required by law.
What the employer generally can’t do is impose a substantially different and adverse job immediately while pretending that nothing has changed. That may be constructive dismissal.
Can an Employer Add Duties Without Compensation?
Yes, in some situations. Ontario law doesn’t require an automatic raise every time an employer adds a task or responsibility.
An employer can generally assign reasonable additional duties that fit within your existing position and compensation arrangement. This is particularly true when the work is related, temporary or relatively minor.
However, keeping your salary unchanged doesn’t give the employer permission to fundamentally transform your job.
When can additional duties become a legal problem?
The change may be significant when your employer:
- Requires you to perform two full-time roles
- Adds major management responsibilities without recognizing your new position
- Assigns specialized work outside your experience or training
- Permanently transfers the core responsibilities of another employee to you
- Dramatically increases your workload or accountability
- Changes the position so extensively that it is no longer the job you accepted
A substantial change in duties can be constructive dismissal even if your salary, benefits and official title remain the same.
What if the new duties require longer hours?
Additional responsibilities don’t remove your right to be paid properly for the hours you work. Employees who are eligible for overtime pay in Ontario must generally receive overtime after working more than 44 hours in a workweek.
A major increase in workload combined with longer hours, reduced compensation or an unreasonable schedule may also strengthen a constructive-dismissal claim.
Job Title Changes, Demotions and Reassignments
A change doesn’t need to reduce your salary to affect an essential part of your employment. Your authority, professional status, reporting relationships and opportunities for advancement can also matter.
Can an employer change your job title without notice?
A purely administrative title change is generally less likely to be constructive dismissal when your duties, authority, pay and professional standing remain the same.
A title change may be more serious if it:
- Makes the position appear less senior
- Reduces your standing with clients, colleagues or your industry
- Affects promotion or future employment opportunities
- Comes with reduced authority or responsibility
- Signals that you have been demoted
The title itself is only part of the analysis. The practical effect of the change is more important.
Is a demotion legal if your pay stays the same?
A demotion in Ontario can amount to constructive dismissal even when the employee’s salary isn’t reduced.
For example, losing direct reports, decision-making authority, signing authority, important accounts or a place on the management team can substantially reduce the status of a position.
Can your employer move you into a different department?
A transfer into another department isn’t automatically unlawful. It may be reasonable when your duties, skills, compensation, authority and career prospects remain substantially similar.
It may be constructive dismissal when the new position requires fundamentally different skills or places you in a role that is objectively less senior, less secure or less prestigious.
Ontario’s Employment Standards Act interpretation manual gives the example of a production manager being reassigned as a sales manager. Even without a change in salary or status, the substantially different skills and duties could support a constructive-dismissal claim.
Does a company restructuring change your rights?
No. A legitimate restructuring may explain why the employer wants to change your position, but it doesn’t automatically remove your employment rights.
The legal question remains whether the employer was entitled to make the change and whether a reasonable person in your circumstances would view it as a substantial and adverse change to the employment relationship.
When Is a Job Description Change Constructive Dismissal?
Constructive dismissal in Ontario can occur when an employer substantially changes an essential term of employment without the employee’s agreement.
Ontario’s employment standards guidance identifies three central questions:
- Was the change unilateral? The employer imposed it without your express or implied agreement.
- Did it affect a fundamental employment term? This can include your core duties, authority, position, status or compensation.
- Was it substantial and adverse? A reasonable person in your circumstances would view the change as significant and disadvantageous.
Examples of changes that may be constructive dismissal
- Moving a manager into a non-management position
- Removing most of an employee’s core responsibilities
- Assigning work that requires completely different skills
- Taking away authority, direct reports or senior status
- Requiring an employee to perform two substantially different jobs
- Changing duties together with a major reduction in pay
- Combining a role change with major changes to working hours, location or reporting structure
Constructive dismissal can result from one serious change or from a series of smaller changes that, when viewed together, show that the employer no longer intends to honour the employment agreement.
Can you receive severance pay?
If the change amounts to constructive dismissal, the law may treat your employment as having been terminated even though your employer never formally fired you.
You may then be entitled to a full severance package in Ontario, including compensation for salary, benefits, bonuses, commissions and other parts of your regular compensation.
Depending on your age, position, length of service and the availability of similar employment, severance can reach as much as 24 months’ pay.
Does continuing to work mean you accepted the change?
Not immediately. An employee may sometimes continue working temporarily while reviewing the situation, seeking clarification or getting legal advice.
However, working under the new arrangement for too long without objecting could be viewed as implied acceptance. Raise your concerns promptly and in writing if the change is significant.
What Should You Do if Your Job Description Changes?
Your next steps matter. Responding too quickly can expose you to discipline or weaken a potential constructive-dismissal claim.
- Save the old and new job descriptions. Keep your employment contract, original posting, offer letter, performance reviews, emails and organization charts.
- Compare the actual positions. Identify changes to duties, authority, title, reporting relationships, pay, hours, work location and advancement opportunities.
- Ask for an explanation. Request written confirmation of why the change is being made and whether it is temporary or permanent.
- Object promptly if the change is significant. State professionally that you don’t agree to a permanent change in your employment terms.
- Don’t sign immediately. A new contract, job description or acknowledgement could be used as evidence that you accepted the arrangement.
- Get legal advice before resigning. An employment lawyer can determine whether the change is reasonable, a breach of contract or constructive dismissal.
Do you have to accept changes to your job description?
You may be required to accept minor, reasonable changes that are permitted by your employment agreement and remain within the general scope of your job.
You don’t necessarily have to accept a substantial and adverse change to an essential employment term. However, that doesn’t mean you should immediately stop working or resign.
Can you refuse to do work that isn’t in your job description?
Not automatically. Refusing a reasonable instruction can lead to discipline or allegations of insubordination, even when the exact task isn’t listed in your written job description.
You may have stronger grounds to challenge the assignment when it is unsafe, unlawful, discriminatory, inconsistent with medical restrictions or part of a substantial change to your employment.
Instead of simply refusing, ask for clarification, explain your concerns in writing and speak with an employment lawyer.
Can an employer change your job description in Canada?
Employers throughout common-law Canada generally have some ability to make reasonable adjustments to an employee’s duties. A substantial unilateral change to an essential employment term can potentially result in constructive dismissal.
Employment standards legislation and the available remedies vary by province. The information on this page is specifically for non-unionized employees in Ontario.
Speak With an Ontario Employment Lawyer
If your employer has changed your duties, title, authority or entire role, don’t assume that you must accept the new arrangement or leave without compensation.
The employment lawyers at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP can review your original position, employment contract and the proposed changes to determine whether your employer has crossed the line.
If the change amounts to constructive dismissal, you may be entitled to a full severance package of up to 24 months’ pay.