Lost Your Job?  Consider these 15 short points. 

By Matt Lalande in Employment Law on June 11, 2018

2 Minute Read from our Hamilton Employment Lawyers

Our Hamilton Employment Lawyers specialize in complex personal injury law, but representing accident victims that have lost their jobs or who are dealing with long term disability issues  comes with the territory.

Whether you’re being let go due to budget cuts, owner retirement, or the sale of a company –  if you’ve been terminated, try not to react in the moment.  You might feel like throwing all your personal items in a box, standing on a desk like Jerry McGuire and asking who is else is following you – but making a dramatic scene as you exit the office won’t help anything and in the end, and probably embarrass you more. You’ll be better much off to take a deep breath, being gracious and polite, and then talking to a Hamilton employment lawyer that specializes in wrongful dismissal.   Before you do, however, you need organize a few things to get the legal advice you need.

What is Wrongful Dismissal? Most People Have it Wrong. 

It is important to understand that an employer has the inherit right to terminate without giving you a reason.   But if when if you are being terminated in Ontario you in turn have an inherent right to protection. When an employer terminates your employment, you are entitled to a certain amount of notice that the termination is happening.  In Ontario, there are two main theories of notice.  The first is termination pay required under the Employment Standards Act. The second is what we call common-law reasonable notice. When an employee is terminated without cause, employers need to make a proper determination of the amount of notice to pay an employee which satisfies both the Employment Standards Act and common law reasonable notice in order to avoid a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal.

If You’ve been terminated, consider the following 15 short points.

1. Keep calm and carry on – don’t be rude, insulting or walk out. Things you do during your termination or exit meeting might come back to haunt you and can negative consequences during your severance negotiations.
2. Are you being terminated for cause or without cause? Make that clear right away. If your employer is offering you any type of termination pay, you are most likely being terminated without cause.
3. Ensure that you get the terms of your termination in writing. Get a letter. Get something.
4. If you do get a letter – don’t sign anything right away. This is not a good move. In fact, you don’t have to sign anything by any strict timeline your employer gives you. You have 2 years to sue your employer if you are claiming damages. The offer can be revoked, but you still have the right to sue.
5. If you are being terminated and you’ve been offered a lump sum payment by your insurance, make sure that your last pay is included in your lump sum. Often times employers miscalculate notice that is owned.
6. Review what they gave you. The Ministry of Labour’s minimum standards are not hard to figure out.  Did they pay you more or less? If less, then your employer has a problem on their hands.  Did they pay you more? This part is a bit trickier to figure out.
7. Are you being paid severance? How big is your employer? If you have been employed for over five years and if your employer has a payroll of over $2.5 Million, then you are entitled to a further week of severance pay for each year worked to a maximum of 26 weeks.
8. Do you have benefits? Track your benefit costs. What do you pay and what portion does your employer pay? Track this because if forms part of your benefit package?

9. Do you have employee perks? Track them, because they form part of your benefit package. For example, if you receive a car allowance, and you lease a car – how will you continue to pay for that car without income?

10. Are you sick, hurt, or disabled? If you are on long term disability, then things get trickier for sure. Even worse, are you being fired because you are sick, hurt or disabled? You will need to talk to a Hamilton Employment Lawyer.

11. Do you have stock options? If so, you should talk to a Hamilton Wrongful Dismissal Lawyer.

12. Do you have impending sales or commissions owing? Keep track and document anything that may be owed to you.

13. Is the manner of termination setting you over the edge mentally? Don’t suffer alone. Seek the appropriate counselling and more importantly, see your GP and ensure that your suffering is medically cared for. Take care of yourself first.

14. If you can find another job – take it, now. The law is very clear that if you are healthy you can’t sit back and wait for a settlement. You need to “mitigate” your losses by taking another job, a job of lesser pay or even part time work.

15. Don’t flip out. Take all of the information above and if you are in the Golden Horseshoe area give us a call or fill out a contact form and we will set up a ten minute call. Our law firm offer free phone consultations to discuss termination packages and if we deem that you need to make an appointment to get better legal advice we will let you know. But please have everything in points 1 – 14 taking care of and have as much information as you can ready, so we can have a chat.

Questions? Contact one of our Hamilton Employment Lawyers

If you have been terminated, Lalande Personal Injury Lawyers can help steer you in the right direction. Give us a call or contact us online and we will set up a phone call to briefly discuss your wrongful dismissal or termination issue.  We will let you know during our discussion whether or not you need legal advice and determine your best course of action at that time.  Please feel free to call us at 905-333-8888, fill in a contact form or chat with our live operator who will help set up a phone call with you.