Severance Pay Ontario Be Offered to Employees
The loss of a job is a stressful and upsetting experience, no matter whether you saw it coming or not. In addition to being upset, you may be worried about your next steps and how you’ll support yourself while looking for a new position. Fortunately, there is a way to ease the transition and give you a better chance of finding employment soon. It’s called a severance package, and if you are fired or leave your company on your own terms, you could qualify for one. However, you’ll need to know how severance pay ontario is calculated and the requirements that your employer must meet.
While the term is often used interchangeably, severance pay Ontario and termination pay are different types of compensation an employer can legally owe to terminated employees in Ontario. Severance pay is the minimum amount a non-unionized employee in Ontario is entitled to receive from their employer when they’re dismissed without cause, according to the Employment Standards Act (ESA). The ESA states that employers must provide severance pay equal to 26 weeks of regular pay if they fire or let an employee go.
Most Canadians know that their employers must provide them with at least some severance pay if they’re terminated for no good reason, or if they don’t have cause to fire them, and they sign an enforceable contract that says so. But what many people don’t realize is that severance packages can be offered to even those who quit their jobs on their own.
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Can Severance Pay Ontario Be Offered to Employees Who Resign?
To resign, an employee must give their employer notice of their intention to do so and they must be allowed to work through the statutory notice period, which is usually two weeks. If an employer agrees to an employee’s request to resign during their statutory notice period, the employee is considered to have been terminated and is no longer eligible for severance pay.
The ESA also stipulates that larger employers must give their terminated employees more severance pay than smaller ones, which is why you’ll often see a higher figure in a big-name company’s severance packages than you would at a small business. Other factors that play into a severance package include the employee’s length of employment, their salary, and how hard it will be for them to find a similar job elsewhere.
While severance packages are important for people who are being laid off, they’re not guaranteed by law. That’s why it’s a great idea for anyone in Canada who is concerned about the size of their company’s severance package to hire an experienced employment lawyer. The team of professionals at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP will use a variety of laws and factors to determine how much you should be paid in the event of being let go and enforce those rights against your employer. This can boost the size of your severance package by tens of thousands of dollars. Contact them today to schedule a free consultation.