Oshawa, located on the Lake Ontario shoreline, is approximately 60 kim east of Downtown Toronto. Due to Oshawa’s close proximity to the city, and being on the GO Train line, it has become a popular bedroom community for those working downtown.
Oshawa is the largest city in Durham Region and offers its own wide vary of employment. Oshawa is home to three post-secondary institutions, a large hospital, and has large employment forces in manufacturing, health technology, energy and IT. Oshawa’s employment market is constantly growing and changing and Oshawa hosts the Regional Innovation Centre which offers start-up facilities for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
If you live or work in Oshawa and are facing issues with your employment, whether it be a constructive dismissal, harassment and bullying in the workplace, or you’ve just received a severance package and you are not sure what to do, the lawyers at Ertl Lawyers are here to help.
If you need employment lawyers in Oshawa, Ertl Lawyers is here for you.
Who We Are: Oshawa Employment Lawyers
Ertl Lawyers is a leading employment and disability lawyer in Toronto practicing in Ontario, including Oshawa.
We’ve helped thousands of clients get the severance pay and disability benefits they deserve.
Our mission has always been about better, faster results.
Learn more about us by visiting our team page.
What We Do: Employment Law
At Ertl Lawyers, our lawyers have experience in assisting individuals with a wide variety of employment law issues. These employment law issues include, but are not limited to, wrongful termination, termination for cause, harassment and bullying in the workplace or human rights issues.
In addition to assisting individual employees who have experienced a challenge in their employment, Ertl Lawyers also offers services to employers who are looking for help with how to terminate an employee or implement a new policy. We are able to draft employment contracts for your staff or termination letters.
If you need help with any employment law in Ontario issue and you live or work in Oshawa, contact Ertl Lawyers for a free consultation over the phone.
Ertl Lawyers has experience in a variety of cases including, but not limited to, the following areas:
Termination of Employment
When an employer decides to terminate you from your job, it could be for a variety of reasons or situations. We often find employees are terminated without cause, meaning that the employer had decided to terminate their employment for a reason unrelated to anything that the individual has done. For example, the company is restructuring, downsizing or change directions. When this happens, you are entitled to severance pay in Ontario, depending on your case.
If you have found yourself terminated without cause, your employer has probably offered you a severance package. This severance package is likely to consist of notice of pay in lieu of notice, severance pay, if applicable, plus other compensation that you would receive only if you sign a release.
If you’ve been terminated without cause and were offered a severance package, contact Ertl Lawyers for a free phone consultation to discuss whether or not the severance offer is sufficient. There is a chance you might be entitled to more than what the company has offered you.
Check out our Severance Pay Calculator to see what your severance package entitlements could be.
Termination with Cause
Being terminated with cause means that your employer is firing you from your employment because they believe you did something wrong. When you are terminated for cause, your employer does not have to offer you any type of severance package.
Employers will often use the following reasons to try and terminate employees for cause, but they may not necessarily be cause for termination in the eyes of the law:
- Theft or fraud
- Dishonesty or lying to your employer during an investigation
- Insubordination
- Gross incompetence
- Habitual neglect of duty
- Unauthorized absences
- Breach of employer policy
- Assaulting a co-worker
In many cases, the lawyers at Ertl Lawyers have seen employers try and terminate employees for cause based on poor performance. However, poor performance is often not a good enough reason to terminate someone for cause. If this has happened to you, we recommend checking out our video Signs that my PIP is a Sham for more information.
If your employer has terminated you for cause, don’t give up. You might still be entitled to severance and you should contact an employment lawyer.
Contact the Oshawa employment lawyers at Ertl Lawyers for more information or visit our Terminated with Cause webpage to learn more.
Constructive Dismissal
In employment law, constructive dismissal refers to a scenario where your employer decides to change something about your employment without giving you advance warning or compensation instead of advance warning or without your agreement. The change that the employer is making has to be to one of the core aspects of your job, for example reducing your salary, changing your hours of work or location and must be significant.
Constructive dismissal in Toronto and across Ontario can also occur in situation where the work environment has become so toxic that you find it impossible to continue to work there. For example, ongoing harassment from a coworker or superior which you have complained to the company about with no assistance or change from your employer.
If you think you might be subject to a constructive dismissal, or you need more information to see if your situation qualifies for constructive dismissal, contact the Oshawa lawyers at Ertl Lawyers for a free phone consultation to learn more. Ertl Lawyers also has a webpage on Constructive Dismissal for more information.
Ertl Lawyers: Oshawa Employment Lawyers
If you want more information about Ertl Lawyers, including what we do, who we are and how we can help, visit our Employment Law webpage. We provide in depth information for your Oshawa employment law issues. We also offer a free consultation over the phone if you would prefer to speak to someone directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much severance pay am I entitled to?
When determining how much severance pay you might be entitled to, the first place Ertl Lawyers will look is your employment contract, if you have one. After assessing the language in your employment contract, we can then see if the legislation will be what you are entitled to for severance, or if the common law applies.
The legislation sets out the minimum amount of severance pay you are entitled to when you are terminated without cause. At the very least, your employer must pay you what the legislation outlines for a termination without cause. If your employment contract has language in it that sufficiently limits you to receive only what the legislation says you are entitled to receive for severance, then that is where your matter ends and you do not have the option to get more. The law is very specific about what your employment contract has to say to limit your ability to get more severance so it is best to have Ertl Lawyers, Oshawa employment lawyers, review your employment contract.
Common law termination severance is what people receive when they go to court and a judge decides what they are owed for a severance package. The common law takes several factors into consideration when calculating your severance package, such as age, length of service, type of job, and the economy. Common law severance is usually much greater than the legislation severance.
Contact the Oshawa employment lawyers, Ertl Lawyers, to find out what your entitlements are, or how much you could potentially receive. You can also visit our Ontario Severance Pay Calculator for an estimate.
What is wrongful termination or wrongful dismissal?
Wrongful termination and wrongful dismissal mean the same thing. Wrongful termination is when your employer has terminated you without cause and did not pay you a sufficient severance package. The termination is considered “wrongful” because you were not paid enough severance and not because of the reasons for the termination. In most cases, why the employer chose to fire you does not matter.
The circumstances surrounding your dismissal only play a factor if you have been terminated for cause as it is likely that your employer will try and deprive you of any severance pay in this type of situation.
Am I entitled to severance pay if I quit my employment?
In the majority of cases, if you quit your job, you are not entitled to any severance pay. This is because you have chosen to leave rather than your employer making you leave.
There are very few and specific exceptions that would allow you to receive a severance package if you quit your job. For example, you quit because you were experiencing ongoing harassment from a co-worker. You reported the harassment on multiple occasions to your employer and they failed to address it and it continued. You might be entitled to severance pay in this situation.
Another situation where you might be entitled to severance pay would be if your employment immediately reduced your salary by half, you objected to the change and asked for your salary to be put back to its prior amount and your employer refused. Resigning in this situation may entitle you to a severance package.
If there is something going on at work that is making you contemplating quitting, please contact the Oshawa employment lawyers, Ertl Lawyers, for a free consultation over the phone first. We can help you determine if a resignation makes the most sense in your situation and get you any severance you may be entitled to.
When you quit your job because you don’t like it anymore or you found a new job, you are not entitled to severance pay.
Does the reason for my termination matter?
If you have been terminated for cause, then the reasons why matter. In most other circumstances the reasons why you were let go is irrelevant.
When you are terminated for cause, your employer must provide you with an explanation of why they are letting you go. This is because there is a very high threshold that your employer must meet in order to actually terminate you for cause.
You are not owed any sort of explanation if you are terminated without cause. This is because the reasons for why you were let go do not play any role in determining how much of a severance package you can receive. For example, your employer could decide that because you are an Oshawa Generals fan and it is a Peterborough Pete’s fan, you should be fired. Your employer has every right to fire you but they must pay you a severance package.
If you were terminated because of your religion, gender, age, family status, etc., then it matters because it could potentially be a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code.
How can the employment lawyers at Ertl Lawyers help me?
At Ertl Lawyers, our goal is to get you the severance you deserve. We can help by reviewing your employment contract and severance packages to assess your potential severance entitlements. We can also start with negotiating severance packages with your former employer and even start a claim for a wrongful dismissal with the court. If you have a human rights complaint or a harassment and bullying issue, we can help with that too.
Contact us today to find out more about how Ertl Lawyers can help you.
Ertl Lawyers has the answers to all of your employment law questions. We offer free guides that you can download yourself on topics such as, Understanding My Severance Package, Help! I Have Been Fired With Cause, Constructive Dismissal and Workplace Discrimination and Harassment.
Ertl Lawyers also has a YouTube Channel. David Ertl, Oshawa Employment Lawyer, and owner/found of Ertl Lawyers, provides explanations on topics such as how age affects your severance package, what happens to your pension when you are terminated, signs that your performance improvement plan is a sham and many more areas of interest.
You can also contact us for a free consultation over the phone. We will arrange for you to speak with an experienced employment lawyer who can provide you with information that relates to your specific case. The employment lawyers at Ertl Lawyers will take the time to review your case, assess your options and lay out the best course of action for you.
Example Cases Won by Ertl Lawyers: Oshawa Employment Lawyers
At Ertl Lawyers, we have helped clients just like you, from all over the GTA and Durham Region. In Patterson v. IBM Canada Limited, 2017 ONSC 1264 (CanLII), David Ertl was able to obtain an award of 18 months of severance pay and benefits for Mr. Patterson after he was terminated from IBM.
In Drysdale v. Panasonic Canada Inc., 2015 68678 (CanLII), David Ertl of Ertl Lawyers, represented an employee who was terminated from Panasonic. David was able to get his client, a warehouse employee, 22 months of severance.
Whereas the vast majority of matters are settled without having to go to court, it is David’s experience and willingness to “go the distance” that convinces employers to provide better severance packages, faster.
Interested in learning more about Ertl Lawyers, Oshawa employment lawyers, cases? Visit David Ertl’s biography webpage to find more.
Reviews: Ertl Lawyers, Oshawa Employment Lawyers
We know reviews are important in helping you decide whether or not Ertl Lawyers is the Toronto employment law firm for you. We have an entire section on our website dedicated to client reviews. Learn what others in Oshawa have said about us.
Niagara Falls Employment Lawyer: Blog Posts
Videos: David Ertl, Oshawa Employment Lawyer
How Much Severance Am I Entitled To?
PIP SHAM
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Contact Us: Employment Lawyers, Oshawa
Do you live in Oshawa? Do you travel to or do you work in Oshawa? Are you in need of expert help regarding your employment? Contact Ertl Lawyers, experienced employment lawyers in Oshawa for help.
Our help can make all the difference.