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.

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.

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.

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.

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.