‘It's irrelevant what the parties intended… it now has to be exactly and perfectly worded,' says lawyer discussing recent Ontario decision
Apr 16, 2025
“There's no such thing as a termination clause built on interpretation - it now has to be perfectly worded for it to be upheld, and the courts are going to find any avenue for viewing termination clauses on the side of the employee.”
So says employment lawyer Natasha Atyeo of Grosman Gale Fletcher Hopkins in Toronto, after the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s ruling that invalidated the termination provisions in an employment agreement for non-compliance with employment standards legislation.
The worker was an employee of Arista Homes Limited, a home building company based in Vaughn, Ont., for four years and nine months. Her employment was subject to an employment agreement containing a termination clause.
The termination clause stated that if the worker was “terminated for cause or you have been found guilty of wilful misconduct, disobedience, breach of employment agreement or wilful neglect of duty that is not trivial and has not been condoned by Arista, then Arista will be under no further obligation to provide you with pay in lieu of reasonable notice or severance pay whether under statute or common law.” The wording reflected what the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) defines as conduct that disentitles a worker from statutory termination pay or notice.
The clause also...
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