As most Canadian employers know too well, employment agreement termination provisions drafted to comply with employment standards legislation have been successfully challenged on often the most pedantic and trivial of grounds.
In particular, Ontario employers have seen termination provisions invalidated on account of highly technical and overly literal word-by-word analysis. The use of the phrases “at any time” and/or “for any reason” have been enough to put otherwise valid contractual language at risk of being nullified.
Termination provisions have also been at risk for failing to distinguish between a more onerous legislated wilful misconduct standard and a less onerous common law standard, even if the minimum legislated requirements were accounted for. Where a termination provision was determined to be unenforceable, employers became liable to pay terminated employees indeterminate, and often much more onerous, common law notice damages.
Yesterday, the Ontario Court of Appeal brought welcome clarification to the enforceability of termination provisions with a common-sense approach.
Specifically, Baker v. Van Dolder’s Home Team Inc. confirmed what our employment lawyers have maintained: “at any time” and “for any reason” are not magic words that automatically void an otherwise valid termination clause where the intention to comply with the ESA is otherwise clear on the language. Also, a properly drafted “with cause” termination provision can preserve statutory minimum...
[Sportschosun Jang Jong-ho] A total of 34.789 billion won in false National Health Insurance claims was detected at 839 health care institutions over the past four years (2022-2025). According to d...