‘The attempt to use one employee handbook across multiple jurisdictions was a major issue’: lawyer
May 19, 2025
Share
A company’s termination provisions in an employment contract breached employment standards legislation and is therefore unenforceable, leaving a worker entitled to common law reasonable notice, an Ontario court has ruled.
It’s a ruling that’s consistent with several recent cases dealing with ambiguity in the language in termination clauses around without-cause termination, according to Daniel Hassell, an employment lawyer at Zubas Flett Liberatore LLP in Toronto.
“A lack of distinction between just cause at common law and the more narrow threshold for willful misconduct under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) creates some ambiguity about when the employer can terminate the employee’s employment without notice and without statutory entitlements to severance pay,” says Hassell. “Courts are really emphasizing the importance of an employee being able to understand to what they would be entitled at the end of their employment, when they're signing the employment agreement.”
The worker, 51, was employed with Salesforce.com Canada Corporation, a software company in Toronto, as a Senior Success Signature Engineer – Core. He was hired in 2015.
The worker’s employment contract included a termination clause that contained a provision allowing Salesforce to terminate the worker’s employment for cause with no compensation or notice....
Making false claims about illegal voting by noncitizens, President Donald Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target the “core of the Democrat Power Center.” In a post on Tr...