Employment Law Show: Ontario – S10 E84

Episode Summary

What are your rights while on medical leave? Are you owed severance if a company is sold? 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

• Ready to return from medical leave, but your employer is refusing to bring you back?: Lior discusses the two options an employer has when it comes to bringing their employees back to work from a medical leave: (1) they can either take the employee back and accommodate their needs, or (2) if there is no longer a job available they can terminate the employee and pay them their full severance pay. Additionally, if the employer is refusing to accommodate or bring them back because of their disability or medical condition, this could be grounds for a human rights violation. 
• Company being sold: When a business is sold, employees are owed severance if they are out of a job and the new employer does not intend on re-hiring them. If they are offered a job with the new company and they accept, employees are not owed severance, but their seniority is inherited. Lior stresses the importance of not signing an employment contract with the new company before having it reviewed by an employment lawyer first.
• Can your employer change your work duties?: An employer is allowed to make slight changes in your day-to-day work duties. However, if you are demoted, or experience significant changes such as a doubled workload or relocation, this could be grounds for a constructive dismissal.
• Can your employer make you resign?: There is never a time when an employer can force their employee to resign. If they no longer want their employee to work for them, they will have to terminate their employment without cause and provide them with the severance they are rightfully owed.

Need an employment lawyer?

• Pocket Employment Lawyer: Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to find out if you might have a case. 
• Severance Pay Calculator: Discover how much severance pay you should get when you lose your job. Used successfully by nearly 2 million Canadians. 
• Watch our TV Shows: Get further clarity on your rights by watching episodes of our popular TV show.