One-year fixed-term contract ends about six months early
A welding company argued a single line in a reused employment contract was meaningless. However, a judge found it created a binding one-year commitment — costing the employer $42,000.
In a decision dated July 9, 2026, Justice L.D. Young of the Alberta Court of Justice ordered Pertium Group to pay a former welder $42,709 for ending a one-year fixed-term contract about six months early.
The company hired the worker as a welder in May 2023 for a project in Kitimat, B.C., flying her out from Alberta and providing accommodation. When work slowed that December, the company said her employment was indefinite and had ended for lack of work. The worker said her contract was locked in a full year.
The case turned on one sentence in the document the company supplied, stating the agreement was "effective for a period of one year" from her start date. The company's chief executive testified the line was never meant to fix a term, saying it came from a template used with independent contractors and was really about revisiting pay rates. He acknowledged the company had since revised the form.
Justice Young rejected that explanation as irreconcilable with the document. The judge found the parties objectively intended a fixed term, held that the one-year clause was neither vague nor a mere recital, and said it had to be given meaning.
In employment law, the judge noted, uncertainty is resolved in the...
Democratic WA Rep. frustrated with own party for killing 'Whistleblower Protection Bill,' defending 'Keeping Families Together Act' Washington State Rep. David Hackney, a Democrat, voiced frustrat...