Employment Law Show: Ontario – S10 E112

Episode Summary

Do you have to resign if pressured to do so? Can you be let go while on disability leave? Employment Lawyer Lior Samfiru, co-managing Partner and national practice leader at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, answers those questions and more on the Employment Law Show. 

LISTEN BELOW to Ontario’s premiere radio show about employment law and workplace rights featuring the province’s leading employment lawyers. You can hear the show live, Sundays at 1 p.m. ET, on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto, as the hosts take calls from listeners and provide vital answers to employees and employers.

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Show Notes

• Ultimatums given by an employer to an employee: In most cases, employees should not worry about ultimatums proposed by their employer. Employers who pressure employees to accept changes to their job under the threat of resignation should be aware that they do not have to accept new changes and continue in their original roles. Employers have the option of terminating the employee if a change is refused however severance pay must be given. Employees should not resign if pressured by an employer.
• Suspend or fire employees due to vaccination status: Many employers have suspended or let employees go for cause due to vaccination status. Employers in most workplaces cannot terminate an employee for cause and owe employees their full severance entitlements. This is important to note that in most workplaces, vaccination status was not a term of employment at the start of employment for most employees.
• Employees terminated on disability leave: Frustration of contract is a situation in which an employee has been away from work for a very long period of time and an employer no longer has to pay severance. Employees in order to fulfill a frustration of contract must be away for a lengthy period of time, over two years, and has to have medical evidence that they are unlikely to ever return to work. Employers should be wary of terminating an employee due to illness or disability leave as it could be considered a wrongful dismissal.
• An employer declares bankruptcy and severance entitlements: Employees that accept a new job after a company has been solder from the buyer, employment is considered continuous and is not owed any severance. If an employee has lost their job as a result of the sale of a business, the seller of the company owes the employee severance pay. Generally, if a company has declared bankruptcy, employees will rarely be able to claim severance.

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