Employment Law Show: Ontario – S10 E67

Episode Summary

Can you be fired after taking medical leave? What is a false resignation? 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, Mondays to Thursdays, on 640 Toronto and 980 CFPL in London at 6:30 p.m. ET, as the hosts take calls from listeners and provide vital answers to employees and employers. 

Listen to the Episode

Show Notes

• An employee returning from medical leave but still dealing with a condition: Employees that are struggling due to a medical condition must be accommodated by their employer. Employers cannot penalize or terminate employees due to a medical condition or disability, it is considered a human rights violation.
• False resignations: False resignations are what the law considers to be an inaccurate resignation and in actuality is a termination. Employees that are forced to resign or put in a position in which there is no other choice, it is not a true termination. It is important to remember that employees who resign are not entitled to severance pay.
• Longer working notice instead of a lump sum severance entitlement: Employees are owed severance pay based on a number of factors including the age of an employee, the length of employment as well as the position. Employers are within their rights to give employees working notice however, the notice does not cancel out severance entitlements upon the end of employment. 
  
• Quitting in the heat of the moment: Employees who resign in the heat of the moment or as a result of a bad day at the workplace do have a grace period. Employment law allows employees a few days after the initial resignation, to retract their actions. Employers who refuse to permit an employee to return after they have retracted their resignation, have terminated the employee.
• Placed on unpaid leave due to vaccination status: Employees who work in a non-unionized setting or in an industry without a government mandate are within their rights to treat the unpaid leave as termination and pursue severance.

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